Toronto Blue Jays Invite Top-Ranked Prospect to Major League Spring Training
The Toronto Blue Jays are inviting top prospect Ricky Tiedemann to major league spring training this year.
He's one of 19 players to receive the non-roster invitee designation.
The following comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:
A biceps issue limited Tiedemann to just 15 starts and 44 innings in 2023, although he fanned a whopping 82 batters over that span. The left-hander also tossed 18 frames in the Arizona Fall League, holding a 2.50 ERA and 23:8 K:BB. Tiedemann is just 21, but he has some of the best stuff of any pitching prospect and, if healthy, has a good shot to debut in 2024.
Because of the age and injury history, Tiedemann has very little to no shot of breaking camp with the Blue Jays, who have five starters already heading into the season, but it's good experience for him to challenge himself at the highest level.
Heading into the year, Toronto figures to roll with Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi and Alek Manoah in the starting rotation. Yariel Rodriguez has also been signed and may end up in that mix eventually also.
As for Tiedemann, he's the top prospect in the organization and the No. 29 prospect in all of baseball.
The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:
The 6-foot-4 left-hander can run his fastball up to 98 mph and it generally sat at 93-96 over the top two levels of the Minors this past summer. His low three-quarters arm slot helps the heater play above the velocity too, making the four-seam a true plus pitch. His swings-and-misses, however, come from the offspeed -- a low-80s sweeping slider that has gotten better in pro ball and a mid-80s changeup that can dive below bats. He does well against fellow lefties but was an absolute menace against opposite-side batters in 2023, holding them to a .186 average and a .196 slugging percentage over 123 plate appearances
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