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

Over the years, the Toronto Blue Jays have groomed many great prospects into becoming valuable Major League players. Some, like Alek Manoah, flew through the minor league system way ahead of time to become a main contributor to the ballclub, whereas for others, like Nate Pearson, would take a longer time, encountering many bumps along the road, despite being ranked highly in the system from the start.

Here we take a look at one hyped prospect at each of the Blue Jays’ minor league affiliates that may not progress as fast as one would expect for 2023.

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays – Adrian Pinto

During the 2021-22 offseason, the Jays had traded Randal Grichuk to the Colorado Rockies for Raimel Tapia and an intriguing prospect in Pinto. He possessed elite skills in hitting, speed, and in the field, despite having a stature of only 5-foot-6. He put that in full display during his Dominican Summer League MVP season in 2021, when he hit .360 with a 1.029 OPS, stealing 41 bases, and walked 38 times compared to only 18 strikeouts.  That placed him already as the 15th highest ranked prospect when he joined the Jays’ system in 2022. The Jays were hoping he could continue to advance his development with their Single-A affiliate Dunedin Blue Jays. 

However, for the 2022 season, Pinto hit only .242, with an OPS of .738, with 18 stolen bases, showing some slight regression compared to his previous output, but he still possessed the valuable tools in his makeup to break out any time. For the start of the 2023 season, he has once again been assigned to start the season in Dunedin, as opposed to promoting him to start in High-A Vancouver. Perhaps they believe he will need a little more seasoning time to develop the various aspects of his game since he is after all only 20 years old. So far after six games, he has hit .278 with a couple RBI and has stolen five bases. Those that were expecting him to fly through the Jays’ minor league system will have the temper their expectations a bit and let this be a growth and developmental year for Pinto.

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.