Blue Jays earn high praise in FOX Sports' 26-and-under rankings

Jordan Shusterman and the staff over at FOX Sports recently released a list that looks at teams around Major League Baseball and how they rank in terms of players that are only 26-and-under. This list takes prospects into account but also leans heavily on the talent that already is up in the major leagues for teams.

To start things off at the bottom, you have teams like the Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's, New York Mets and Texas Rangers. Each of these clubs, especialy the Giants, Mets and Rangers, have a ton of talent on the team but it's primarily consisting of longtime veterans playing out massive contracts.

The Toronto Blue Jays find themselves all the way up in the No. 5 spot, which is a huge compliment to how the front office has gone about drafting some of the young stars who are tearing it up at the big league level.

Other clubs in the American League East weren't so lucky. The New York Yankees ranked 20th, the Boston Red Sox landed in the 15th spot and the Tampa Bay Rays landed in the No. 8 spot.

There are currently four teams whose rankings have not yet been announced. This includes the division rival Baltimore Orioles, who have to be near the top thanks to the presence of both Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson.

The three remaining clubs have to be some configuration of the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Guardians.

Big league pitching: 7 out of 10

Alek Manoah is the obvious candidate for best pitcher 26-and-under on the Jays. He made his first All-Star Game last year, finished third in the AL Cy Young Award race, going 16-7 and striking out 180 batters in 31 starts.

He is a part of one of the most lethal starting pitching duos in the league with Kevin Gausman (who is over 26 and does not qualify for this piece's sake) and is projected to be the Jays' Opening Day starter.

Manoah is one of just a couple pitchers who will produce in the big leagues that fit this bill. Zach Pop and Nate Pearson are 26 but it remains to be seen how much time each of them will get in The Show thanks to the presence of many veterans above them on the depth chart.

Prospect pitching: 3 out of 5

We all know who gets the most praise when it comes to pitchers down on the farm for the Blue Jays: Ricky Tiedemann.

The 20-year-old was lights out last year in the minors and is likely going to begin the upcoming season in Triple-A. If he continues to produce, a late season callup to the bigs (even if it's as a shutdown reliever) is not out of the question by any means.

The piece on FOX points to the fact that multiple pitching prospects that could've made the cut have recently been dealt away, including Nick Frasso (traded for Mitch White) and Simeon Woods Richardson (traded for José Berríos).

However, Yosver Zulueta is still around and the hard-throwing righty is sure to crack the majors at some point in the coming season. While he has dealt with his fair share of injuries over the past few years, "Zulu" seems to be a relief weapon in the making and could use his high-90s fastball to his advantage in short outings in the bigs.