A Full Breakdown of the Toronto Blue Jays prospects headed to the Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League rosters have been released this week with a lot of intriguing prospects on each team. There are six teams full of prospects from teams that will play starting October 6th. I’ll be writing an article and making Twitter posts about each team’s roster. This will cover the Toronto Blue Jays who are on the Glendale Desert Dogs this fall. The team will consist of players from the Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, and White Sox organizations too. This will be the first article for the team.

Toronto Blue Jays:

Alex Amalfi RHP: An interesting story Amalfi went undrafted in the 2022 draft after playing at Division III UMass Boston for three seasons including the 2020 season. He was promoted to Toronto’s AA the New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ this season and pitched 81.2 innings with 10 starts. After a good season last high in high A Vancouver he had a shaky one in AA upping his BB% by more than 3%. With no Statcast going off his spring training outings he has a very good fastball that comes from a lower arm slot but his offspeed pitches leave a lot to be desired. His slider, curveball, and changeup didn’t grade out very well especially compared to his MLB ready fastball. I’m sure the Blue Jays want to see more swing and misses in his outings this fall. 

Angel Bastardo RHP: Another interesting addition Bastardo was the Blue Jays rule 5 draft pick from Boston this season but had Tommy John surgery last June and hasn’t pitched since. Because Bastardo hasn’t been on the Blue Jays active roster he’ll have to make their Opening Day team next year for them to keep him. Boston had been developing him as a starter before the surgery but I as do Fangraphs believe he’ll likely settle into a reliever role. He’s known for a great changeup that dies as it gets closer to the plate to go along with a fastball that sits about 96 mph. He struggles to throw his slider and curveball for strikes and will likely rarely throw them when transitioned to a reliever. His main problem has been command as he doesn’t have a season above the complex league with a BB% under 10%. He has a very high upside especially if moved to the bullpen and will be fun to watch this fall. If he can perform here and next spring I’m sure the Jays will be happy to have him in the back of their bullpen.

Kai Peterson LHP: Peterson is a very interesting pitcher, he’s a left handed reliever who throws with a sidearm slot and is basically a one pitch guy. He throws his 93 mph sinker about 80% of the time but gets a lot of swing and misses on it. He also has a slider, curveball, and changeup that don’t really get any whiffs. His command though is a problem as he only has a 26.8% CSW this season and has been recently promoted to AA. He could potentially be a solid lefty specialist in the bigs but will have to at least be able to throw his slider for a strike to reach that level. I’m sure the Blue Jays are looking for him to work on his command throughout the fall.

Yondrei Rojas RHP: After starting this season on the injured list Rojas pitched his first game in relief for the Jays’ A+ team and was so good over 23.2 innings he has recently been promoted to AA where in 11 innings he has a 0.82 ERA. He’s striking out 32.8% of players this season the most of his career and walking 7.5% his lowest in a season since 2023. Even though Rojas is only 5’10” 180 lbs his fastball sits in the mid 90s. He also has an upper 80s cutter, slider, and changeup. The stuff is definitely there for Rojas and with the walk rate dropping this season I’m excited to get Statcast information on him this spring as he could develop into a top reliever prospect for the Jays.

Chay Yeager RHP: Drafted out of Pasco-Hernando State College a JUCO in Florida as a two way player, Yeager switched to a full time pitcher in his first professional season and has risen from A+ to AA this season. He was really good in the A+ bullpen with a 1.77 ERA in 35.2 IP and had a 31.9% K% with a 9.6% BB% all really good for A+ but since being moved 4.15 ERA and a 5.21 FIP in 17.1 IP, his K% has dropped to 23.6% facing AA hitters. This season he dropped his four pitch mix down to only two: a fastball that sits in the mid 90s and a gyro slider that has been working well. He’s definitely lost a bit of command as he’s moved up to AA and has already given up four homers in AA compared to one in A+. The Blue Jays are likely looking to see Yeager get more swing and misses this fall and reverting back to what he had been doing in A+. 

Edward Duran C: Originally signed to the Marlins, Duran was traded to the Blue Jays in the 2022 trade that sent Zach Pop and Anthony Bass to the Jays for Duran and Jordan Groshans. Duran’s mostly known for his defense and has transitioned to the modern one knee down stance this season improving his framing while keeping his strong arm. Throughout the minors he’s shown good contact skills and a knowledge of the zone with high walk rates and low strikeout rates but this season Duran has changed his approach and sold out more for power. After only two home runs in his entire career he has hit eight this season to add onto 20 other XBHs. This has led to an increased strikeout rate and decreased walk rate. He still only has an 87.9 mph average ev in A this season but improved his hard hit rate from only 22.3% in 2024 to 36.1% this season. If he can continue playing above average defense and improving at the plate Duran could be a solid big league catcher but is likely still years away as he was only recently promoted to A+. With the Blue Jays needing to make a decision on him this year since he’ll be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft they likely want to get him even more at bats in the fall. 

Josh Kasevich SS: The best prospect the Jays are sending to Arizona according to both Fangraphs and Pipeline, Kasevich a 2022 2nd round pick has been battling a stress reaction in his back throughout the season and has only played in 31 games this season. He was only recently promoted back to AAA where he ended 2024. Kasevich has consistently hit at every level average wise but rarely hits for power. Weirdly he has MLB ready exit velocities and hard hit rates but doesn’t put the ball in the air. Last season throughout AA and AAA he only had a 24.2% fly ball rate. Kasevich has been stuck hitting low line drives that either get into the gap or are for singles. If he makes a small swing change to pull the ball more in the air to go along with his elite contact he will become a top prospect. His only other problem is he has below average range and athleticism at short and likely is going to be switched to second or more of a utility player in the future. With Kasevich only playing 18 games above A this season and an increase in flyball% the Jays likely want to keep his at bats coming this fall. 

Thank you for reading for shorter breakdowns check out my Twitter @drew-durstock. Each day I will release a new team's prospect breakdown.