A closer look at the rise and fall of former Blue Jays top prospect Nate Pearson

The best of times and the worst of times for the 2023 season

Finally, for 2023, it appeared as though he finally had a clean bill of health. With all of his setbacks and injuries put behind him once and for all, this was the year Pearson was going to show the baseball world what he can do. Despite starting the year in Buffalo, his impressive start to the season in which he struck out 25 in just 12 innings of work while sporting a 1.50 ERA earned him a truly deserving promotion to the big league club by the end of April.

From there, it seemed like the highly-touted, fearless and overpowering Pearson has finally arrived and was finally going to stick with the team for good. Up until mid-June, it had been the most dominant stretch we had seen in his major league career, as he went 4-0 with a tidy 1.96 ERA, 0.91 WHIP,.193 opponents batting average, giving up only five earned runs, five walks and 26 strikeouts in 23 innings pitched. Not only that, but he seemed in full command of his pitches, along with tantalizing hitters by attacking them in the strike zone with pure confidence.

However, whether it was fatigue resulting from his lack of innings built up from the previous three seasons due to injuries, or opposing batters have finally figured him out, the monumental rise of Pearson would suddenly fall back to earth in the past couple of months. From mid-June onwards, he had reverted back to his inconsistent form seen in his two prior years in MLB, with glimpses of dominance mixed in with struggles finding the plate. In his last 16 games, he has pitched to an unworldly 9.53 ERA, 1.65 WHIP, giving up 17 hits, 18 earned runs, 11 walks and 15 strikeouts in just 17 innings of work. As a result, he has been optioned back down to the minors and has been yo-yoing up and down since then.