The New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ Bats Are on a Roll

The Toronto Blue Jays have opened the new year with a 9-13 record, which has landed them in last-place in the American League East. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is doing what he does best and carrying the offense, while on the pitching side, Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease are doing everything they can to put the staff on their shoulders.

Yet, it’s the supporting staff that needs to start carrying its weight if the Blue Jays are going to earn back-to-back World Series appearances. It also doesn’t help matters that 11 players are currently on the injured list.

At the game’s highest level, things aren’t going great. But down in the minor leagues, you’ll find results that are quite a bit more encouraging.

As of right now, two of the Blue Jays’ four minor league affiliates sport records above .500, while a third is just one game below that mark.

Down in Double-A, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats have started their season with a bang. Nine of their first 13 games have seen them score six or more runs, but not all of them have resulted in victories.

Sitting in first place in their division with an 8-5 record, they’ve still got a small amount of games under their belt, but they’ve already scored double-digit runs in six of their eight wins.

Notably, one of these victories was an all-time classic that unfolded right before our very eyes. The Fisher Cats found a way to score a whopping 10 runs in the second inning of a game against the Red Sox Double-A affiliate … while registering exactly one base-hit. If you somehow made it this far without hearing about this, do yourself a favor and track down the video.

The offense is absolutely rolling right now, and the most encouraging aspect of it all is that it’s the underrated players that typically don’t get enough love that are leading the charge.

Let’s take a look at some of the best run-producers so far and give credit where credit’s due.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ Offensive Standouts

The Blue Jays have three players on Just Baseball’s latest Top 100 prospects list, and none of them are currently in Double-A. Turning over to MLB Pipeline, only one player in Toronto’s top-10 is in New Hampshire, while that number climbs to three (four if you count the currently-injured Victor Arias) once you expand the filter to the top 20.

Clearly, most of the Blue Jays’ best up-and-coming talent are at other levels. With this in mind, it makes the outstanding start to the new year even more impressive for those Fisher Cats.

What’s most encouraging about this run is that it’s mostly being led by players who aren’t top-shelf, household names.

Jace Bohrofen

Selected by the Blue Jays in the sixth round of the 2023 MLB Draft, Bohrofen has been a consistent power threat while climbing the organizational ladder. However, durability has been something of a concern for him, as he missed a chunk of time last year.

Even still, the left-handed swinger posted a 130 wRC+ in 2024 and turned in a combined 106 mark last year split between two levels. He’s been an above-average run producer, and while he’s not due to start a rapid ascent up Toronto’s prospect rankings, he’s been serviceable and reliable, which does mean something.

To kick off the new year, Bohrofen has already hit five home runs, driven in 12 runs, gone 4-for-5 in stolen base attempts, and posted a 149 wRC+. His .996 OPS is 27th in Double-A, and he’s on an extremely strong pace to break a number of career-highs this year.

Jackson Hornung

Seeing Bohrofen succeed as a sixth-round pick is one thing, but Hornung, who was selected in the same draft in the 16th round, is another animal. The 25-year-old was initially drafted as a catcher but he hasn’t played an inning behind the plate since 2024.

Now a first base-corner outfield hybrid, Hornung doesn’t hit for much power but that definitely doesn’t mean he doesn’t hit, period.

After posting a 132 wRC+ through 96 games last year, Hornung has opened the 2026 season with a .397 average and 162 wRC+ in his first 12 games. To make things even more impressive, he’s registered at least one hit in every game of the season to this point.

Hornung, who’s far from a household name, is second in all of Double-A in hits (24) and doubles (6), tied for fourth in RBI (15), seventh in batting average (.397), and he’s in the top-25 in both OPS (1.012) and wRC+ (162).

Are these numbers sustainable? Maybe not. Are they still extremely impressive to open a new year with? You bet.

Sean Keys

You’ll find Hornung all over the Double-A leaderboards, but he’s not the only Blue Jays farmhand to be heavily featured on the list(s). Keys, a fourth-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2024 MLB Draft, hit 19 home runs with 72 RBI and a 119 wRC+ in what was his first full season as a pro last year.

He very much fits a low-contact/high-power kind of profile, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Visually, his left-handed swing is a lot of fun to watch when he sends a ball into orbit, and he’s already shown us on multiple occasions that he can hit the ball hard.

To open the 2026 campaign, Keys has five home runs, 15 RBI, a .356 average, 1.238 OPS, and 206 wRC+. In nearly every way, he’s been the Fisher Cats’ top offensive piece, and his place on the leaderboards prove that. It’s also hardly a shock to see him already turning in Player of the Week-worthy performances.

Sean Keys’ Double-A rankings:

• Home Runs: T-3rd
• Runs: T-2nd
• RBI: T-4th
• Average: T-12th
• OBP: 8th
• SLG: 5th
• OPS: 4th
• wRC+: 4th

Keys is currently ranked 17th in the Blue Jays’ system by MLB Pipeline and is going to get some love in Just Baseball’s updated Blue Jays prospect list when that drops as well. Him swinging the bat the way he has to start the year should make a further ascent down the line much less surprising.

Eddie Micheletti

Micheletti, the Blue Jays’ eighth-round pick in 2024, turned some heads last year when he did something fewer and fewer of his peers do as the game continues to evolve: walked more than he struck out.

The 24-year-old hit 14 home runs with 70 RBI, a .228 average, .793 OPS and 124 wRC+ in 106 games last season. To open the new year, he’s hit two homers, driven in nine runs, scored 15 more of his own, and continued to show off a strong eye at the dish.

To date, Micheletti is hitting .300 with a .937 OPS and 142 wRC+ through his first 12 games. The sample size is still very much growing, as is the case with any players and stats through this amount of games played, but the start is absolutely encouraging.

Time For the Pitching to Catch Up

The Fisher Cats’ offense has been a juggernaut so far, but the pitching staff has left quite a bit to be desired. Right-hander Gage Stanifer is easily the most recognizable name of the bunch, and he’s struggled to find consistency thus far.

Through three starts, he sports a 10.13 ERA in 10.2 innings of work. In his last outing, he went 4.1 innings of two-run ball, allowing just one hit and striking out six batters. After he posted a 3.20 ERA in 18 games last year with 13.6 K/9 and just two home runs allowed all year, the concern level should be low on the former 19th-round draft pick.

Walks have been an early issue for most of the arms on this staff, including some of the more recognizable names like Richard Gallardo, Stanifer, and Fernando Perez, as has the entire group’s run prevention as a whole.

But two performances in particular have been noteworthy in a more positive way to kick the 2026 season off.

Javen Coleman, a true relief-pitching prospect, has shown a ton of potential in the lower levels of the Blue Jays’ system. The left-hander had a combined 3.00 ERA across 38 outings last year, punching out over 14 batters per nine and bringing an even more impressive 2.46 FIP to the table. So far through four appearances and 6.1 innings of work, 11 of his 19 outs have come via strikeout while he’s allowed just one walk.

To date, the pro career of Austin Marozas has consisted of just 11 appearances since he came over from Indy ball last year. In that time, he’s allowed just six earned runs in 27.2 innings of work, which has resulted in a sparkling 1.95 ERA. He’s only made it into three games for the Fisher Cats so far this year, but he’s struck out 10 batters and walked only one while allowing just a single earned run.

We haven’t seen a whole lot of Marozas since he turned pro, and he’s already 27 years of age, but stranger things have happened than an aging minor leaguer having a surge up the ranks.

Closing Thoughts

Armed with an 8-5 record, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats currently occupy the top spot in the Northeast Division. While their lead is just a half-game above the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, they’ve put themselves in a solid spot to open the new campaign.

If offense alone could win ballgames, this team would have far more wins and far less losses, but that’s just not how the cookie crumbles. Still, first place is first place, and the Fisher Cats’ offense has been absolutely rolling.

The season is still young, so there’s plenty of time for the run-prevention unit to match the run-production one. Early-season performances should almost always be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s also good to tip your hat to the young guns when they consistently string together strong showings.