3 Blue Jays prospects who are expendable, 2 they should keep for 2025

In preparation ahead of the 2025 MLB season, the Toronto Blue Jays will begin their journey to significantly retool their roster during the upcoming offseason. Aside from looking at external options in free agency and the trade market, the Jays have some promising internal ones as well in the form of their top prospects. Those prospects could either step in and potentially play a role over the course of the upcoming year, or they cousl become valuable trade chips in which the Jays could use to help make the team competitive once again.

As a result, we will take a look at three Blue Jays prospects that could be expendable going forward and two others that they should keep for 2025 to help them get back to their winning ways.

3 Blue Jays prospects who are expendable, 2 they should keep for 2025

Expendable: P Brandon Barriera

When the Jays took pitcher Brandon Barriera out of American Heritage High School in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, they had high expectations for the intriguing left-hander. After all, the Jays Journal No. 15 prospect instantly risen to become the organization’s second-best prospect behind Ricky Tiedemann according to MLB Pipeline in his first year as a pro in 2023.

Following an impressive debut start in which Barriera when four strong shutout innings while striking out six, things have gone downhill for him ever since. He would end up missing the bulk of the 2023 season due to elbow and biceps injuries that limited him to just seven starts in total. In those starts, Barriera posted a 0-2 record with a 3.98 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, along with 9 walks and 25 strikeouts in 20.1 innings pitched. 2024 was substantially worse for Barriera, as he would make only one start before undergoing season-ending combination Tommy John surgery and internal brace procedure on his left elbow.

As the Jays restocked their farm system with a boatload of arms from the 2024 MLB Draft and the trade deadline, Barriera has gradually fallen down the organization’s pitching prospects depth chart in the process. With the Jays looking to become contenders once again in the upcoming year, they may not have the patience to wait and see how Barriera turns out. Especially now that he appears to be at least two to three years away from being ready due to the setback in his growth and development, they should use him as a potential trade chip while he still possesses some fair value.

Keep: INF Orelvis Martinez

The Jays and their faithful had highly anticipated for the eventual arrival of power-hitting phenom Orelvis Martinez. For a Jays’ offense that have had its troubles scoring runs in recent times, they fully expected Martinez to provide a significant offensive impact the moment he joined the big league club. After all, he was coming off a strong 2023 minor league season in which he amassed 28 home runs and a whopping 94 RBI along with 70 runs scored in just 125 games played.

Despite starting the 2024 season with the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons, Martinez continued to mash the ball while becoming the master of run production along the way. The Jays took notice and finally gave him his well-deserved promotion in June. However, after registering his first MLB hit in his debut against the Cleveland Guardians on June 21, Martinez would be handed a momentum-stopping 80-game PED suspension that would essentially wipe out the bulk of the remainder of his 2024 season. After coming back from his suspension, he would finish off the year in Buffalo and posted a final stats line of .267/.346/.523/.869 with 54 runs scored, 19 doubles, 17 home runs and 49 RBI in 74 total minor league games.

Despite missing out on a huge opportunity to fully develop his game in the big leagues and potentially locking down a permanent spot on the Jays’ big league roster, Martinez remains the most prolific hitting prospect within the organization. If taking a look back in the past couple of decades,, the Jays have had only been a handful of homegrown, power-hitting talents in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Vernon Wells to show for. Due to its rarity in the organization’s history, Toronto must keep this precious asset at all costs as Martinez could become a huge difference maker for the club just like his predecessors in due time.

Expendable: OF Dasan Brown

A third round pick by the Jays from the 2019 MLB Draft, it has taken quite some time for outfielder Dasan Brown to develop his game in the past few seasons. Despite beginning his professional baseball career with the organization way back in 2019, the Canadian has only managed to reach Double-A level just this past year. With speed and defense being his main calling card, Brown has been working hard to develop his bat. But to date, it has produced just mixed results.

In 2024, Brown had made some progress in High-A Vancouver when he batted a solid .257 with a .774 OPS, with 51 runs scored, 15 doubles, 2 triples, 8 home runs, 39 RBI, 22 stolen bases and a 2:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 74 games played. However, following his promotion to Double-A New Hampshire, he struggled mightily to just a .217 average, .586 OPS, with 12 runs scored, 7 doubles, 1 triple, 0 home runs, 2 RBI, 13 stolen bases, along with a greater than 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 32 games of action.

At the rate at which things have been going for Brown, he is likely panning out to be a fourth outfielder that specializes in pinch running and defense at the major league level. With the Jays in dire need of offense more than anything at this moment, along with the presence of promising outfield prospects in Alan Roden, Charles McAdoo and even Jonatan Clase ahead of him in the prospect depth chart, there doesn’t appear to be a role for Brown with the club in the near future. As a result, he could serve better as trade bait for a team potentially looking for a young, defensive specialist off the bench to man their outfield late in games.

Expendable: P Ricky Tiedemann 

For the Jays’ consensus No. 1 prospect across the industry in 2023, Ricky Tiedemann had an outstanding debut season in 2022 in which he advanced through three minor league levels. Over 18 starts, Tiedemann posted a 5-4 record with a sensational 2.17 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, giving up just 19 earned runs and 3 home runs all year, together with 29 walks and 117 strikeouts in just 78.2 innings pitched. He was so dominant that many were wondering if the Jays actually had the next Roy Halladay in their hands.

However, the subsequent two seasons has turned into somewhat of a nightmare for the 22-year-old left-hander. In 2023, Tiedemann primarily played for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats where over 11 starts, he compiled a dismal 0-5 record with a 5.06 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. But his dominant strikeout ability was still evident, as he fanned 58 batters in just 32 innings of work. However, over two months of his season was wiped out by a left biceps inflammation ailment, severely impeding his overall growth and development.

For this past season, things actually went from bad to worse despite Tiedemann getting the promotiom to the Triple-A level. He would only appear in eight minor league games in total, amassing a 5.19 ERA and 1.67 WHIP with 27 strikeouts in 17.1 innings pitched. His season would be cut short as he underwent Tommy John surgery on his left elbow to repair his UCL. With two consecutive years filled with inconsistency and injuries, Tiedemann saw his rankings in the MLB Top 100 Prospects list fall from his high rank of #32 in 2023 to completely off of the list by the end of 2024.

From the way things have been developing for Tiedemann, he appears to be painfully heading towards Nate Pearson territory, with injuries derailing what was supposedly a promising career ahead of them. As of now, Tiedemann still sits in the No. 4 spot in the organization’s top prospects list according to MLB Pipeline, so comparatively he still holds some tremendous value. As a result, rather than risk losing him later with diminished value, the Jays should fully take advantage of that while they still have the chance and use him as the centrepiece for any potential major trades that could help address the team needs.