4 Blue Jays Prospects Playing Their Way to Promotions

With all the injuries and poor performances from big-league regulars on the Toronto Blue Jays roster this season, the team might have to continue to look to the minor leagues for more efficient options this season. The Jays are sitting at 23-27 through their first 50 games and in 13 games against divisional opponents they have a record of just 5-8.

Some Blue Jays have proven to be standout performers like Kazuma Okamoto, Brandon Valenzuela, Dylan Cease, but for every player performing well there seems to be multiple others having a rough stretch. Toronto’s tried fixing things at the big-league level through trading for talent, acquiring infielder Lenyn Sosa from the Chicago White Sox. However, he’s been mediocre as a Blue Jay and this isn’t the easiest and most reliable way to acquire help.

Already in 2026, the Jays have enlisted the help of minor leaguers from their Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons like Adam Macko, Valenzuela, Spencer Miles, and Yohendrick Piñango and they’ve all performed as advertised and have helped the team incredibly. These four players have combined for 1.8 fWAR this season, making up just under 16% of the entire team’s 11.5 fWAR on the season.

Maybe this is an indication that they need to bring more Triple-A guys up to the MLB? Here are a few names that could be the newest players to make the jump to the big leagues sooner rather than later.

All stats updated prior to games on Friday, May 22

Charles McAdoo (3B, Buffalo Bisons)

McAdoo is an offensively-gifted slugger that plays a solid defensive third base, and he represents a great find by the Jays who acquired him from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Isiah Kiner-Falefa in 2024. The interesting part of this deal came over the ensuing offseason, where Kiner-Falefa resigned in Toronto and the Jays simply came out of the trade with more than they entered with.

As one of Toronto’s early-season standouts, McAdoo earned a promotion to Triple-A Buffalo this season after posting great numbers with Double-A New Hampshire in 2025, as he slashed .247/.318/.413 with 16 home runs, 45 RBI, and 34 stolen bases to go alongside his 113 wRC+. Given his performance so far in 2026 at the highest level of the minors, he’s proving himself ready for anything.

With the Bisons, McAdoo has hit .259/.369/.443 with seven home runs and 26 RBI over 45 games and he’s improved his walk rate by over 5% from last season with a strong 14.4% this year. He currently leads the Bisons in home runs and stolen bases (6) while being in the top-three on the team in walks (27) and hits (41). Among qualified Bisons players, he also leads the team in slugging percentage.

Toronto’s offense is 22nd in fWAR in all of baseball this season and 26th in slugging percentage, so maybe calling up a surging power bat like McAdoo could be a solution for their problems. The only concern is his defensive position, as he’d likely be relegated to second base where he’s also got experience. Remember the name Charles McAdoo; he’ll be making an impact soon at the MLB level.

RJ Schreck (OF, Buffalo Bisons)

One of Toronto’s most impactful minor league hitters over the last few years has been RJ Schreck, who has swung a very powerful bat lately. For the first time in his career, Schreck earned a promotion to Buffalo in 2025 and he put on a show in his 58 games.

Slashing .242/.392/.435 wth nine home runs and 33 RBI, Schreck showcased an incredible eye at the plate by posting 38 walks alongside 49 strikeouts at the plate. In 2026, he’s improved on both of these numbers. In 45 games this season, Schreck has a strikeout-to-walk rate of 32/30 while hitting .230/.375/.405.

Leading the Bisons with 27 RBI in 2026 and ranking second on the team with a .780 OPS, Schreck has been an incredibly intimidating hitter at the plate this season. Among players in the International League with at least 150 plate appearances in 2026, Schreck has the ninth-highest walk-to-strikeout ratio (0.94) and is one of just three hitters with 30 or more walks and 32 or fewer strikeouts.

Schreck has played at least four games at each outfield position but grades out most likely as a center or right fielder (37 total games) and he’s only committed one error in 319.1 defensive innings. Although these aren’t the most in-depth defensive metrics, it’s worth showing his consistency on the other side of the ball. If Toronto does need another outfield option if Nathan Lukes or Addison Barger isn’t able to come back healthy soon, Schreck is the next best thing.

CJ Van Eyk (RHP, Buffalo Bisons)

27-year-old CJ Van Eyk was a second-round draft pick by the Blue Jays in the 2020 MLB Draft and although historically he’s had some trouble finding consistent success in the minor leagues, he’s breaking out in a big way in 2026. In nine starts with the Bisons, Van Eyk has a 3.53 ERA, 3.97 FIP, and 33 strikeouts in 43.1 innings.

Van Eyk has thrown two quality starts in his eight appearances and has only allowed 3+ earned runs twice in 2026. His best outing thus far came on April 11 against the Syracuse Mets where he tossed 6.0 shutout innings while only allowing two hits and two walks.

In his three starts prior to Thursday’s against those same Mets (15 IP), Van Eyk garnered 37 swinging strikes and he reached 80+ pitches in each outing. He’s showing his ability to work deep into games and while his strikeout rates have never been very high since his days at Single-A and High-A, he’s still able to get hitters out efficiently.

Van Eyk’s potential spot on the Blue Jays roster might not be in the rotation, as Toronto already has Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, and Patrick Corbin manning rotation jobs at the moment. Although their fifth spot is currently a bullpen game courtesy of some bulk work from Miles, Van Eyk’s breakthrough onto this roster would probably have to be in a relief role, at least at the beginning.

Chad Dallas (RHP, Buffalo Bisons)

Competing for the same role as Van Eyk is 25-year-old Chad Dallas, who was contending for a roster spot as a non-roster invitee out of spring training earlier this year. Dallas has been in Toronto’s organization since 2022 after being drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 MLB Draft and this year he’s really proving himself at the Triple-A level.

Dallas missed all of the 2025 season after recovering from Tommy John surgery and he’s come back stronger post-operation. In 32 innings with Buffalo this season, Dallas has a 4.50 ERA, 3.11 FIP, 34 strikeouts, and 12 walks. It took him 42.0 innings to reach the 32-strikeout mark at the Triple-A level in 2024 and he’s done so in 13 fewer innings this year while increasing his strikeout rate.

One thing Dallas has done to improve his skillset in 2026 was being able to increase his velocity, as his four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker, slider, and curveball all seeing increases and bringing his pitch arsenal a newfound swing-and-miss potential. Whereas his fastballs ranged from (on average) 92.2 MPH (four-seam fastball) to 80.9 MPH (curveball), Dallas’ mix now sits in a range of 93.4 MPH (sinker) to 82.6 MPH (slider).

He’s been very solid this season for Buffalo and aside from two less-than-ideal starts, he’s limited opposing lineups to two or fewer runs in the vast majority of his outings. Dallas surrendered 10 home runs over 61 innings at Triple-A last season and has only given up one so far in 2026, limiting impactful hard contact.