Six Blue Jays prospects that have increased their value with a strong month of May

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In the past few years, the Toronto Blue Jays have utilized free agency and the trade route to bolster their roster to meet the competition. By doing so, they were able to obtain key players such as Kevin Gausman, Kevin Kiermaier, Daulton Varsho, Brandon Belt, Chris Bassitt, and Erik Swanson to name a few. As much as the Jays prefer employing that route to build a strong team, ultimately, they will require the infusion of some young players from their own system to help complement the team to enable long term success.

As the Jays begin to look to the development of their young players in the minor leagues, there have been a few players who have performed quite well recently, with hopes to finally making the big show one day in the near future.

Here, we take a look at six Blue Jays prospects who have definitely improved their value in the organization after a strong performance in the month of May.

Davis Schneider – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #28

Davis Schneider is kind of the “forgotten” one, as he was selected by the Jays in the 28th round back in the 2017 MLB draft. Basically, it was around the time when hyped prospects such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Danny Jansen and Rowdy Tellez started to make their mark in the system as well. As a result, Schneider inadvertently was often overlooked as he flew under the radar for majority of the time. Over the past five years, Schneider gradually moved up the Jays’ minor league system, with his biggest jump coming in 2022 when he went through three levels from High-A to Triple-A. He had been a decent player throughout his minor league career, but nothing that really jumped out of the page.

This season, he was off to a slow start with the Buffalo Bisons, producing a stat line of .242 average, .815 OPS, three home runs, 12 RBI, nine walks and 19 strikeouts. But Schneider had a sudden surge in the month of May where he hit .264 with an OPS of .975, 17 runs scored, eight home runs, 19 RBI, three stolen bases, 18 walks and 22 strikeouts, as people were beginning to take notice of him. With the ability to play both in the infield and outfield, along with his solid production to date, look for his versatility and reliability to help eventually pave his way to the big leagues when the chance comes.

Rainer Nunez – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #26

Rainer Nunez started the year in High-A with the Vancouver Canadians, after spending most of the previous year in Single-A Dunedin. He had a breakout year during the 2022 season, hitting .304 with 65 runs scored, 19 home runs and 82 RBI in 121 games across two minor league levels. Bringing that promise into the 2023 season, Nunez unfortunately had a miserable first month with the Canadians, producing only a .182 average and .538 OPS to go along with one home run, six RBI and 13 strikeouts in 44 at-bats.

However, Nunez had a huge bounce back month of May that resembled more like his breakout year from the previous year. He batted .364 with a .984 OPS, 21 runs scored, three home runs, 23 RBI, 13 walks and 18 strikeouts in just 99 at-bats. If he continues to keep this up, he should be able to crack the top 20 for Jays’ top prospects pretty soon and could become one of the Jays more prolific hitters in their minor league system, being able to combine his power with hitting consistency and solid run production.

Hagen Danner – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #22

Pegged to potentially be the Jays’ closer of the future, Hagen Danner began the year ranked outside of the top 20 for the Jays top prospects list. He started the 2023 season in Single-A Dunedin on a rehab assignment after being out since March due to right forearm inflammation. After two rehab outings, he was reinstated to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats roster at the beginning of May.

From there, he would go on to have a strong month with the Fisher Cats, pitching to a 1-1 record in eight appearances, giving up only three earned runs, with only two walks and 16 strikeouts over 9 innings for a 3.00 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. With the steady, yet impressive performance, Danner earned a promotion to Triple-A Buffalo at the end of May. He now joins the likes of Yosver Zulueta and Trent Thornton on the Bisons team as the only players currently on the Jays’ 40-man roster that could be called up readily to help the big league bullpen when needed.

Spencer Horwitz – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #18

Spencer Horwitz has always been a solid contact hitter with great discipline throughout his minor league career within the Jays’ organization. He may not possess strong power numbers, as his career high in home runs is 12, set in 2021 and 2022, but he has the ability to get timely hits to drive in runs. He began 2023 in Buffalo, after moving up from Double-A last year, and had a solid month of April in which he hit .301 with an OPS of .904, with seven runs scored, one home run, 12 RBI, 18 walks and 19 strikeouts.

Horwitz was able to follow that up with a hot month of May in terms of run production, as he scored 13 runs to go along with one home run and 17 RBI. Not only that, he was still able to maintain about a 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio while hitting .330 in the process. Despite his solid performance thus far in 2023, his path to the big leagues is currently blocked by both Guerrero (first base) and Brandon Belt (left-handed DH), due to the position he plays and where he would slot into the lineup. However, with his stock rapidly rising, he could potentially be used in trade talks later this year to help strengthen other needs the Jays may have at that time.

Dahian Santos – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #11

Many people may not be too familiar with the name Dahian Santos when it comes to prospects within the Jays’ organization. He was signed out of Venezuela back in 2019, but didn’t make his professional debut until 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. His main strength is his strikeout ability, using a low 90s fastball together with a low 80s sweeping slider to help get batters out. This was on full display during his 2022 year, where he struck out 142 batters in just 86 innings across two minor league levels. With that type of potential, this is why he is ranked currently #11 on the Jays’ top prospects list.

For 2023, he began the year with the Canadians with a couple of rough outings to start the season, but has since picked it up during the month of May. In four starts, Santos gave up only five earned runs, 11 hits, eight walks and 16 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched for a 2.65 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. As he continues to hone his skills and fine tune his pitches in his development as he moves up the ranks in the minor leagues, look for Santos to crack the Jays top ten prospects sooner rather than later.

Orelvis Martinez – Jays MLB Top Prospects ranking #4

One may be surprised to find Orelvis Martinez on this list because, after all, he currently is ranked fourth on the Jays top prospects list and have been in the top five the past three years as well. The main reason is because Martinez was coming off a disappointing minor league season in 2022 from a growth and development perspective. Despite displaying strong power numbers with the Fisher Cats with 30 home runs and 76 RBI in just 118 games played, he had struggled quite a bit at the plate with hitting consistency as he hit only .203 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of almost 3.5:1. He was profiling towards MLB players such as Mark Reynolds and Joey Gallo, famous for being a hitter with “three true outcomes”.

His poor hitting habits continued into the first month of 2023, as Martinez struggled mightily, hitting only .089 with only five hits, but surprisingly still managed three home runs and 10 RBI. Many were beginning to worry if his hitting mechanics have regressed to a point where it would prevent him from ever becoming the highly-touted prospect with untapped potential he was expected to be. Luckily, Martinez was able to produce a more consistent, solid month of May to help quash that worry for the time being by batting .236, with an OPS of 1.010 to go along with 18 runs scored, 11 home runs and 24 RBI. More importantly, he has cut down his strikeout-to-walk ratio to about 1.5:1 and has been generating more hits that weren’t just “all or nothing” home runs. Positive signs point toward Martinez in beginning to turn the corner, which bodes well for his future as he intends to be a productive, star-potential MLB player.

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6 Blue Jays prospects who improved their stock with a hot month of May