Blue Jays prospect Chad Dallas hoping to get career back on track in 2026

2026 marks the fifth year of Chad Dallas' tenure in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. the 25-year-old right hander was drafted in the fourth round (2021, No. 121) by the Blue Jays out of Tennessee where he started as a reliever, but grew into an intriguing starting prospect.

There may be even more intrigue surrounding the Texan native this year in Spring Training as Dallas tries to work his way back from injury, and and have a breakthrough campaign this year.

Blue Jays prospect Chad Dallas hoping to get career back on track in 2026

In 2022, Dallas' first year of pro-baseball, he started 21 games for the Blue Jays' Single-A affiliate the Vancouver Canadians. He pitched to a 4.60 ERA in 88 innings, but maintained an 8.8 SO/9 rate with 86 punch outs, with some obvious areas to work on such as bringing down in his walk rate (5.2) and lowering his WHIP (1.545).

Dallas did exactly that the following season. He quickly outgrew his Single-A surroundings after pitching to a 2.36 ERA in 26.2 innings with 37 strikeouts in five starts. He was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire and while his numbers weren't as dominant, he still pitched effectively. In 96.2 innings, Dallas racked up 107 strikeouts, and recorded a 1.262 WHIP, a 10.0 SO/9 rate and lowered his walk rate to 3.4 BB/9. He did give up a lot of home runs though, with 15 long balls leaving the yard while with New Hampshire, compared to just one allowed that year with Vancouver.

So the progression was there, and Dallas was slowly climbing the ranks. In fact at the end of 2023 he was named the Blue Jays pitching prospect of the year. However, things went south the following season when his year was cut short after 14 starts with Triple-A Buffalo in 2024. He underwent Tommy John Surgery in September of that year and he has been on the mend since. On Monday, (Feb. 26) Dallas took to the mound in a Spring Training game against the New York Mets and he dominated the five hitters he faced.

In 1.2 innings, he struck out four batters and didn't allow a hit. He struck out the final two batters of the outing one of which was Christian Pache, who has 557 games of big league experience. While the plan for Dallas is likely to spend the season recovering and building back up his arm strength in Triple-A, Blue Jays fans saw first hand last year how quickly a prospect can rise up the ranks and force themselves to become part of the big league team's plans.

While Dallas may not have the same trajectory that Trey Yesavage did a year ago, it is a step in the right direction for a guy who is ranked as the No. 15 prospect on the Blue Jays' top-30 list.