Roden finishing year red-hot in Jays' pipeline

TORONTO — The minor-league schedule is winding down and, despite a handful of late-season surges as well as an influx of talent at the trade deadline, the Toronto Blue Jays’ pipeline is still riding out a down year overall.

With less three weeks to go for Triple-A Buffalo, most of the notable names in the upper minors are now in the big leagues, and many of them — Will Wagner and Leo Jimenez lead the way — are impressing.

As of today, Jimenez (No. 6), Addison Barger (No. 7), Davis Schneider (No. 8), Spencer Horwitz (No. 15) and Bowden Francis (No. 36) have all passed the 130-at-bat/50-inning thresholds and graduated from last year’s top 50 list, while Joey Loperfido (193 at-bats) has also lost his prospect status.

When you include the trades earlier this year of Otto Lopez (No. 31) and Yosver Zulueta (No. 35), that’s seven open spots for fresh blood when the 2025 top 50 drops in January.

From here, following this final instalment of the monthly prospect report, we’ll wrap up the season in October with an organizational all-star team that features the best overall performances from the system this season.

Using our annual top 50 Blue Jays prospects list as a guide, here’s a look at how some of the prominent names — one notable bat and one notable arm at each of the affiliates, plus a Canadian from the annual league-wide top 20 list — fared in the month of August.

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

Bat to watch: OF Alan Roden (No. 9)

Promoted to Buffalo in June, the 2022 third-round pick took a while to adjust, but, boy, has he really adjusted lately.

In the month of August, Roden was scorching hot, slashing .354/.411/.594 with four home runs across 26 games.

The homers and that slugging percentage are the keys for Roden, who came into the year trying to unlock some more power from the left side, very similar to Horwitz.

With 14 bombs this season, Roden has already hit three more than last year and has himself in position to contribute to the Blue Jays outfield at some point in 2025.

Arm to watch: LHP Trenton Wallace (NR)

With his heater topping out at 88-89 mph, Wallace is never going to be a sexy pitching prospect garnering headlines, but all he’s done is get outs since being selected in the 11th round back in 2021 out of Iowa.

It’s been a rude welcome to Triple-A for the soft-tossing lefty with a 6.17 ERA across his first six starts, but Wallace did post a 2.68 ERA over 17 starts in Double-A, which earned him that promotion.

With a strong start in 2025, Wallace could be a candidate to earn a spot start or two in the big leagues next season.

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Bat to watch: OF RJ Schreck (NA)

It’s been a month now since all of the trade acquisitions entered the system, and two names have impressed scouts most.

Charlie McAdoo is one, and the other is Schreck, who’s built off his breakout in the Seattle Mariners system by slashing .264/.385/.552 with five homers and five steals across his first 104 plate appearances in the Jays pipeline.

The left-handed hitter is a big time sleeper at this point.

Arm to watch: LHP Adam Macko (No. 11)

Shelved by a forearm injury in July, Macko luckily avoided any structural damage and has begun building back up with a pair of outings in A-ball to finish out the month of August.

He punched out five across three shutout frames in Dunedin on Aug. 30.

After watching Ricky Tiedemann, Landen Maroudis and Brandon Barriera all succumb to TJ this season, Macko finishing the year healthy is a much-needed stroke of good luck.

No matter what he does from here on out, Macko was able to chop the walk rate this summer and stay relatively healthy until this setback.

The arm is legit, but the question is whether he can stay healthy for a long enough stretch in order to polish things up enough to stay in the rotation.

High-A Vancouver Canadians

Bat to watch: 1B Peyton Williams (NR)

After feasting on corn growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, Williams has been feasting on High-A pitching lately, finally showing the type of power you’d expect out of a 6-foot-6, 255-pounder.

Slowed by an injury to start the year, Williams found a groove in August, slamming seven home runs after hitting just four the previous three months, and posting a .912 OPS.

The Jays do not need a first baseman — for now, at least — but what they do need is power and Williams’ late-season breakout makes him a fun bat to monitor once he gets into the upper minors where his hit tool will be tested.

He doesn’t hit lefties much, so this is likely a strong-side DH option down the road if things click.

Arm to watch: RHP Ryan Jennings (No. 42)

This is cheating because Jennings has been in Double-A since early July, but the 25-year-old has been shifted to the bullpen in New Hampshire as a way to limit his innings and see how the stuff plays in shorter stints.

He’s turned it up a notch out of the ‘pen, as he’s yet to allow a run across eight appearances with the Fisher Cats.

As a starter at this level, however, Jennings acquitted himself well across 11 turns, posting a sparkling 2.13 ERA in 50.2 innings.

The right-hander has shown an ability to keep the ball on the ground and in the ballpark, while the strikeout rate has jumped as a reliever in Double-A.

The 2022 fourth-rounder is one to watch to see where things go in 2025.

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays

Bat to watch: OF Eddie Micheletti Jr. (NA)

Drafted in the eighth round in July and signed to an under-slot deal as a senior out of Virginia Tech, Micheletti profiles similarly to the first name on this list, fellow outfielder Alan Roden.

Across his first 17 games as a 22-year-old getting his feet went in Single-A, the left-handed hitter has slashed .333/.456/.524 with a pair of homers, which is all you can ask from a college product who’s supposed to tear up the lower levels.

Arm to watch: RHP Gage Stanifer (NR)

Considering he’s rocking a 6.05 ERA in Dunedin, nothing about Stanifer’s stat line is going to jump off the page.

Across 58 frames, the 2022 19th-round pick has pitched better than the numbers suggest however, and the most important aspect of the right-hander’s season are his velocity gains.

Stanifer’s lively two-seam fastball touched 96.1 mph and averaged almost 94 in his final start of August last week, providing a better jumping off point for his four-pitch mix.

Canuck of the Month

OF Owen Caissie (No. 2)

It was thought there was a chance Caissie would arrive at Wrigley this summer, but instead he’s spent the entire year honing his craft at Triple-A.

While he hasn’t exactly crushed it this year, the 22-year-old left-handed hitter hasn’t disappointed, either, slashing .278/.378/.473 with 15 homers across 111 games at the highest level of the minors.

The most important part is he’s kept the strikeouts somewhat in check at a palatable 27.6 per cent, down from his 31.1 per cent rate in Double-A last year.

The Cubs need to add Caissie to the 40-man roster this winter, putting the 2022 45th overall pick and key piece to the Yu Darvish trade in position to make his big-league debut next season.