Blue Jays’ next prospect wave starts rolling with Dunedin debuts

Ryan Cooney, Dean West and Landon Waters are all officially minor league ball players. Those were three players whom the Toronto Blue Jays drafted during the 2026 MLB Draft earlier this month and they all began their pro-baseball careers earlier this week by suiting up for the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays.

There were some memorable moments in those debuts. Third round draft pick (No. 103 overall) Cooney, who is getting compared to Ernie Clement, worked an eight-pitch at-bat against a major leaguer and picked up his first hit after battling Clay Holmes who was on a rehab assignment. He was down 1-2 in the count, but managed to foul off two pitches, then worked the count full. He then laced a single to center field.

Dean West, a seventh round draft pick (No. 222 overall), also got a hit in his first at-bat. On a 1-1 pitch he singled off Holmes as well in the bottom of the third inning, with the ball leaving his bat at 88.4 mph. West was unfortunately picked off attempting to steal second.

Unfortunately for Landon Waters, picked in the 17th round (No. 522 overall), things didn't go as well. He came into the game in relief, but allowed a three-run home run to Elian Peña. These were just three of 11 total players who have been assigned to Dunedin as part of a major organizational roster shuffle that took place during the week.

Other prospects that landed in Dunedin included: RHP Reese Bassinger (UDFA, West Virginia), RHP Nolan Higgins (5th rd, Michigan State), RHP Isaac Williams (UDFA, Oklahoma), RHP Gavin Seebold (UDFA, Indiana), RHP Dax Dathe (UDFA, Louisiana State), INF Ryan Franden (UDFA, Sam Houston), INF Brayden Martin (11th rd, Maryland), and C Jake Bennett (8th rd, Dallas Baptist).

Meantime, that allowed the Blue Jays to move graduate some other players to the next level. INF Raimundo De Los Santos, OF Jean Joseph, RHP Franly Urena, INF Dariel Ramon and two-way player Austin Smith moved up to High-A Vancouver.

2B J.R. Freethy, RHP Austin Marozas, RHP Jonathan Todd, and OF Mathieu Vallee landed in Double-A New Hampshire. SS Nick Goodwin, RHP Caleb Freeman, and RHP Beau Philip all reached Triple-A.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for the organization as Blue Jays also made some cuts

In order to make some room for the newbies, some players were given their release. That included RHP Carson Pierce, RHP Diego Dominguez, LHP Luis Fonseca, RHP Lluveres Severino, RHP Luis Victorino, RHP Jay Schueler, RHP Irv Cater, C Will Cresswell, C Brock Tibbitts, INF Manuel Beltre, and INF Kendry Chirinos.

Carter and Beltre were arguably the most notable. Carter was drafted by the Blue Jays in the fifth round of the 2021 draft and signed for an over-slot bonus of $850,000 and immediately jumped into the Blue Jays' top-10 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. He had mixed success throughout his tenure in the Blue Jays' system and this year, the 23-year-old pitched in 10 games for Double-A New Hampshire, compiling a 4.86 ERA and 4.74 FIP. He landed on the Injured List following those ten games.

Beltre also was launched into the top-10 on the Blue Jays top-30 list after being ranked the 24th best prospect in the entire 2021 international class. He signed with the Blue Jays for $2.5 million and had a good first year in the system, but couldn't maintain his success.

It took him three years to move above Single-A and this year with High-A Vancouver, Beltre struggled to a .244/.307/.393 slash line with 16 walks and 49 strikeouts.

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