5 Underrated Blue Jays Pitching Prospects You Need to Know
These Blue Jays pitching prospects might not be the most well-known, but they deserve some recognition for their underrated performances.
The Toronto Blue Jays, among top prospect names like Arjun Nimmala, Trey Yesavage, and Ricky Tiedemann have an abundance of young pitching depth currently sitting in the minor leagues. While Toronto’s MLB rotation is on the older side in 2025, these arms could be featured at the MLB level in the near future.
Here’s a breakdown of five names you may not have heard of in Toronto’s system that could make waves sooner than later. While you might not see these players on any top prospect lists, they’re still names worth monitoring.
Gage Stanifer (RHP, High-A, Vancouver Canadians)
Gage Stanifer has been on a roll to start the 2025 season, earning a promotion from the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays on May 20. Bouncing back from a tough few seasons in 2023 and 2024, Stanifer has increased strikeout numbers and reduced walks significantly from his previous performances and will certainly be one of the Blue Jays’ highest climbers this season.
In Dunedin, Stanifer dazzled opposing hitters to the tune of a 0.69 ERA with 38/12 K/BB ratio over 26 innings across just seven appearances. Among pitchers with at least 18 innings in Dunedin’s Florida State League (FSL), Stanifer’s .112 opposing batting average ranks as the best mark in the league. His pitch mix features a hard sinker, slider, four-seam fastball, and changeup, inducing groundballs at a 56.3% rate at the Single-A level.
Since earning his call-up to High-A Vancouver, Stanifer’s still been very effective, albeit with a more realistic set of statistics. Over 15 innings, he has 26 strikeouts to just 10 walks with a 2.40 ERA and an incredible 25.9% K-BB rate, where walk percentage is subtracted from strikeout percentage.
His opposing batting average once again sits among the league’s best, as his .122 mark puts him at 6th in the entire Northwest League behind teammate and the Blue Jays’ top pitching prospect Trey Yesavage. His 15.60 K/9 is fifth-best in the league and he’s putting the High-A level on notice of what he brings to the field.
Stanifer recently combined with Yesavage on May 31 as part of a three-pitcher shutout effort against the Hillsboro Hops (ARZ affiliate). Yesavage went 4.1 no-hit innings with 5 strikeouts and Stanifer closed out the game with 4 innings of his own and 7 strikeouts to boot.
Drafted in the 19th round of the 2022 draft, Stanifer is proving to be quite a steal. He’s shown to be effective this season at multiple levels of the minors, and his name is an important one to know going forward.
Michael Dominguez (RHP, Double-A, New Hampshire Fisher Cats)
Michael Dominguez has spent parts of the last three seasons with Toronto’s Double-A affiliate and has dominated in 2025. A 1.42 ERA and a 11.72 K/9 rate definitely show the incredible season he’s having, and a 0.95 WHIP isn’t anything to shake a stick at either.
ERA-, a stat that normalizes the league-average ERA as 100 and lower scores indicate successful run-preventing pitchers, has Dominguez at 37 through his first 25.1 innings this season. He has stranded 87.8% of baserunners so far, so he’s got some talent in the clutch department.
Last season stood as a setback for Dominguez, who saw his strikeout rate diminish and gave up a lot more hard contact than he was used to, which contributed to a 4.56 ERA across almost 100 innings with New Hampshire. His 2025 performance is standing as a testament to his ability to overcome struggles.
Six of Dominguez’s nine outings in 2025 have been scoreless appearances, and he’s struck out at least three batters in each outing of at least two innings. He’s been a solid arm for Toronto’s Double-A team so far this season, and if he can keep this up he’ll be on the rise soon.
Grant Rogers (RHP, Double-A, New Hampshire Fisher Cats)
Grant Rogers has spent time with High-A Vancouver and Double-A New Hampshire (where he currently pitches), and has been lights out at both levels. Combined in 2025, his 2.08 ERA across 60.2 innings is a strong representation of consistency. He boasts a 8.23 K/9 which, while not being spectacular, isn’t a defining trait of every pitcher’s success.
Rogers was the Northwest League’s Pitcher of the Week for the first week of August last season, thanks in large part to an eight-inning shutout effort with nine strikeouts and only three hits surrendered. This was one of six outings in 2024 in which he went six innings or further in a start.
In only one start so far in 2025, he’s only surrendered three or more earned runs once, and exactly two earned runs three other times. Rogers sported an ERA of just 0.45 over his first four starts to the season, and although this number has expectedly gone up since then, his season has been impressive overall considering his middling last few years.
Patrick Gallagher (RHP, High-A, Vancouver Canadians)
Pat Gallagher is an 11th-round pick from the 2022 draft who has been performing incredible well in 2025 out of Vancouver’s bullpen. He’s made one start to the tune of four no-hit innings with a walk and four strikeouts, although most of his work comes out of the pen.
On the season, Gallagher’s notched 30.2 innings at a 1.47 ERA and a 32/13 K/BB ratio. He also hasn’t yet surrendered a home run across these 16 outings so far, and he’s got a career-best 0.98 WHIP two months into the season.
His five earned runs against this season have only been scored in two of his appearances, leaving 13 scoreless outings, the vast majority of which are more longer than one inning of relief. Gallagher made 21 starts and only 1 relief appearance last season, so in 2025 his increased efficiency could be due to a switch to a bullpen or long-relief role.
If Gallagher continues this run of dominance at the High-A level, he could find himself pitching out of Double-A New Hampshire’s bullpen in the coming months.
Colby Martin (RHP, Single-A, Dunedin Blue Jays)
Colby Martin has put on an absolutely incredible display of pitching at the Single-A level in Dunedin, and he’s cemented himself as one of the best relievers in their bullpen.
He has a strong 1.96 ERA over 17 relief outings with 23 strikeouts and has only allowed four hits so far this year. With runners in scoring position this season, Martin has a WHIP of just 0.75 and has a strikeout rate of 35%. He has stranded 75% of baserunners and has held opposing batters to a .111 batting average on balls in play (BABIP).
Among pitchers in the Florida State League with a minimum of 10 innings pitched, Martin’s 1.96 ERA is 23rd in the league and his .068 opposing batting average ranks him third in the league. With a fastball that sits comfortably in the upper 90’s, Martin’s repertoire and success in Dunedin could translate well with a promotion to High-A.
These five arms might not be the most recognizable names and you might not find them on a list of pitchers to potentially see in the Majors this season, but they’re worth keeping track of. All of these pitchers were drafted in later rounds of their respective drafts, and they’re making the most of their opportunities. Toronto has some diamonds in the rough and they’re only getting started.
Written by
Ethan has been writing for Jays Journal, a site on the Fansided network, since 2023 and is fascinated by how sabermetric statistics can assist our understanding…