Blue Jays prospect's breakout turning forgotten 2024 deadline deal into trade steal

Last year the Toronto Blue Jays pulled the plug on the Nate Pearson experiment when they traded the former top prospect to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for shortstop Josh Rivera and Yohendrick Piñango.

Now, a little more than 10 months after the deal, Piñango is beginning to look like a bonafide stud thanks to a strong showing at Double-A.

Piñango entered play on Monday slashing .303/.421/.521 with seven home runs and 17 RBI in 41 games. He's clearly off to a great start this season and is one of the hottest hitters in the Blue Jays' system.

He's also tallied eight doubles and five stolen bases, which has helped him generate an incredible 183 wRC+.

Blue Jays prospect's breakout turning forgotten 2024 deadline deal into trade steal

And while Piñango's strong production would be great at face value, it's even better when you consider how he got to Toronto. As mentioned above, the Blue Jays acquired him in a trade with the Cubs in exchange for Pearson — a trade that looks better and better by the day.

While Pearson had a 2.73 ERA in 26 1/3 innings last year for Chicago, he got off to a horrible start this year. The 28-year-old posted a 10.38 ERA in 8 2/3 innings with the Cubs this year before being demoted to Triple-A Iowa. While he's been a bit better in Triple-A (3.29 ERA in 11 games), they didn't acquire him to be a depth arm.

Which brings us back to Piñango, who is turning the Eastern League into his playground.

Piñango has recorded 11 multi-hit games this season for the Fisher Cats, and recently had a stretch where he hit four home runs in five games.

His best game of the season came on April 19 when he went 4-for-4 with a Triple in a 4-2 win over Harrisburg.

His strong performance to start the season earned him kudos from Baseball America, who highlighted him as one of their prospects to watch after his strong start to the season.

He has above-average exit velocity numbers (he's hit a ball 112 miles per hour this year) and is generating a ton of power to his pull-side.

While his glove is still a work in progress, he has the hit tool that should help him have some success in MLB, even if his future is as a corner outfielder/designated hitter.

Priot to this year, his best year in the minors came in 2022 when he smashed 13 home runs and drove in 63 runs for the Cubs' High-A affiliate. He should fly past those numbers this year.

He's also due for a promotion to Triple-A, which would put him one step closer to making his MLB debut.

It's not hard to imagine how Piñango can help the Blue Jays at the big league level. He'd likely move between left field and designated hitter along with Anthony Santander in the same way that George Springer currently does.

The Blue Jays will likely have Daulton Varsho in center field for the foreseeable future, so they'll be able to afford to trot out some subpar defenders in the corner outfield spots.

But his success and bounceback character this season has made him a prospect to be on the lookout.