Blue Jays officially reassign top pitching prospect in latest round of roster cuts

Ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays system, left-handed pitcher Ricky Tiedemann didn't even get to throw a pitch in Grapefruit League action, before the Blue Jays optioned him back to Triple-A. The promosing southpaw is looking to use 2026 as a year to re-establish himself as a big time prospect, but he'll have to do all of that work in the minor leagues.

Tiedemann was one of several pitchers who were moved out of big league camp on Sunday as the Blue Jays continue to trim down the roster ahead of the start of the 2026 season.

Blue Jays officially reassign top pitching prospect in latest round of roster cuts

Right-hander Jake Bloss, who is also recovering from an injury, was also optioned to Triple-A. Meantime, fellow righties Tanner Andres, Nate Garkow, and Chay Yeager have been reassigned to Minor League camp, but Tiedemann is easily the biggest name here. Last week, the first edition of the 2026 Top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline was released and Tiedemann made the top five cut.

However, Tiedmann has spent most of the last few seasons on the mend. After getting drafted in the third round of the 2021 MLB draft, Tiedemann showed some promise and managed to make it to Triple-A Buffalo at the end of 2023. But the following season he struggled and eventually was put on the IL to undergo Tommy John Surgery.

That surgery kept him out of action for all of 2025 and the hope was that in 2026 he would be able to regain some of that prospect shine that helped him pile up 117 strikeouts in 78.2 innings in Double-A in 2022. Although, according to the industry experts, the injury really hasn't tarnished that prospect shine off Tiedemann at all, with that fifth place ranking in the Blue Jays' Top 30

The Blue Jays are in a position right now where they can afford to wait on Tiedemann. The 23-year-old may be high ranked on the prospect list, but he's not expected to be the first call up should their be an injury to one of the Blue Jays' starters. In fact, the Blue Jays have already been hit by the injury bug specifically in their rotation, but they've built up enough depth that they should still have one of the better five-man groups going into the year and that's without needing Tiedemann immediately.

It would be a wonderful story if Tiedemann came out of the gate on fire and forced his way into the conversation, but ideally, Tiedemann uses all of 2026 to build himself back up and maybe gets thrown an olive branch and earns a call up in September.