One hyped Blue Jays prospect at every minor league level that may disappoint in 2023

High-A Vancouver Canadians – Eric Pardinho

Back in 2017, the Blue Jays signed Pardinho, an exciting international prospect from Brazil. He possessed a strong three-pitch arsenal of a plus fastball, curveball, and changeup and made huge strides coming right out of the gate with two impressive seasons in 2018 and 2019 with a sub 3.00 ERA in Rookie and A-ball with the Jays’ affiliates. Pardinho was so impressive that he was once ranked as high as in the top five for Jays’ top prospects in 2019.  

However, his promising ascension through the system was derailed by Tommy John surgery, along with some further nagging elbow issues and rehab setbacks, limiting him to only three innings pitched over the next two years. Finally, in 2022, after starting the first couple months of the season dealing with a right elbow injury, Pardinho was able to get fully back into action, but pitched to a 5.70 ERA with a 1.7 WHIP across three affiliates with limited innings. Now, with a new fresh season to start with, he has gotten into one game and gave up six runs over 1.2 innings pitched.

Unfortunately, he has once again landed on the 7-day IL, and hopefully this time, it is just a short-term issue. So it appears once again it may be a longer road for Pardinho this year, but more importantly, the key aspect for his comeback will be staying healthy and breeding patience, with hopes to rediscover his form prior to 2019.

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats – Adam Kloffenstein

Kloffenstein was drafted by the Blue Jays back in the 3rd round of the 2018 Amateur Draft. He was a highly touted prospect at the time as he jumped right into the Jays’ top ten prospects list. He offers a four-pitch arsenal, fastball, curveball, slider with horizontal movement, and changeup in which he commands pretty well, leading to many whiffs and ground balls in play. Kloffenstein debuted with a great year in 2019 with the Vancouver Canadians, pitching to a 2.24 ERA with a 1.09 WHIP and striking out 64 in 64.1 innings.

After a down year from the COVID-cancelled season, he had moved up to Double-A New Hampshire, where he began to struggle with a six-plus ERA and a 1.6 plus WHIP. This year, he has remained with the Fisher Cats again and has gotten off to a rough start as well, as in two starts, he has given up five earned runs with six walks, with eight strikeouts over just seven innings of work. It appears that it may take a little more time than expected to get Kloffenstein acclimatized in utilizing all his pitches to his optimal ability, and hopefully he can get his mechanics worked out sooner than later to move on further up the system.

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons – Hayden Juenger

Hayden Juenger was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 6th round of the 2021 Amateur Draft. He advanced through the Jays’ minor league system at a rapid rate and was predicted to make his MLB debut some time during 2022 already. Ranked in the Blue Jays’ top ten prospects for the past couple of years, Juenger utilizes a plus fastball to go along with a slider that helps induce swing-and-misses, together with a changeup to help him develop into a primarily bulk relief role potentially for his career. In 2022, he pitched effectively to a 3.76 ERA with a WHIP of 1.128 with 100 strikeouts over 88.2 innings. His main weaknesses are being able to execute his pitches more consistently, and making mistakes that make his unhittable pitches vulnerable, as he had also given up 18 home runs despite being dominant. For this year, he started again at Buffalo to hone his craft and thus far, has given up four runs over 9.1 innings with 15 strikeouts and a WHIP of about 1.4.

Juenger’s overall development may not be that disappointing thus far, but to Jays’ fans, they’ll be disappointed not to see him yet in the big leagues as he is still behind a few others such as Nate Pearson and Yosver Zulueta and others in line to be called up. So he may find himself spending a little more time at Triple-A than needed, and at the same time, must demonstrate that he has stabilized his control and command of his pitches consistently to become a premium MLB reliever.