A new face joins Ricky Tiedemann in Baseball America’s new top 100 prospect rankings

For much of the 2023 season, top prospect Ricky Tiedemann had been the sole representative of the Toronto Blue Jays in Baseball America’s (subscription required) top 100 prospect rankings. The lack of prospects within the top 100 has made many wonder if that is a good representation of the current state in the Jays’ minor league system pipeline, which doesn’t sound encouraging as a result.

Fortunately, in the latest release of Baseball America’s top 100, an additional face of the Blue Jays have finally joined the club. Everyone, please welcome our very own Orelvis Martinez!

Martinez has now taken the No. 67 spot in the top 100, after drastic improvements in his hitting mechanics, and correspondingly, his overall offensive output as well. Martinez is currently the ranked fourth in the Jays’ MLB top prospect rankings behind Yosver Zulueta, Brandon Barriera, and Tiedemann.

Here is a perfect summary of some of his recent production at the plate.

For Tiedemann, who has been out for most of the 2023 season due to biceps inflammation, he hopes to be finally returning to action in the coming weeks, but have fallen down to No. 50 in the top 100 in the process as a result of his inactivity.

For the season, Martinez is hitting .226, with an OPS of .825, with 33 runs scored, 17 home runs and 46 RBI. He has improved immensely in his approach at the plate, as earlier in the year, he was struggling even to hit close to .100, while having most of his hits being home runs in an “all or nothing” approach. Martinez hopes that his effective adjustments in his hitting mechanics will ultimately lead to an eventual promotion up the minor league ladder later on in the year.

Hopefully down the road, more Blue Jays’ prospects will rapidly grow in their skills and development and eventually join both Martinez and Tiedemann on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect rankings list some time in the near future.