Blue Jays Have One Goal To Achieve With First-Round Pick in 2025 MLB Draft

The Toronto Blue Jays have found a lot of success in recent MLB Drafts and will look to continue that this year.

Apr 16, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; A Toronto Blue Jays hat and glove in the dugout during a game against the Atlanta Braves at Rogers Centre. | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The Toronto Blue Jays entered the year with a farm system that was considered to be in the bottom half of baseball.

But just past the midway point of the year, the arrow is pointing in the right direction when it comes to the prospects ranked at the top of the organization.

They will be looking to add to that group in the 2025 MLB draft.

The Blue Jays will have a clear goal in mind when they come on the clock with the No. 8 overall pick and throughout the early part of the draft: balance out their farm system.

Right now, the only positional player who ranks near the top of the Toronto prospect list rankings is shortstop Arjun Nimmala, a power-hitting youngster who is ranked No. 1 in the organization.

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Outside of him, the rest of their top prospects are all pitchers.

Three of those talented arms -- Trey Yesavage, Khal Stephen and Johnny King -- were selected in the first, second and third rounds of the 2024 MLB draft.

All three players are performing at an incredibly high level in their first seasons as professionals. Yesavage has already reached Double-A New Hampshire, with Stephen at High-A Vancouver and King at Single-A Dunedin.

The entire trio has been promoted at least once, with a second promotion potentially on the horizon for Stephen after he was named the Northwest League Pitcher of the Month for June.

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Pitching is the strength of their farm system.

Ricky Tiedemann, Jake Bloss and Brandon Barriera are all currently injured and rehabbing or have recently gotten injured and are expected to make a return.

That makes things pretty clear about the direction the team is hoping to go in during the 2025 MLB draft: add positional player help.

“Given where the Jays' first pick is, Oklahoma RHP Kyson Witherspoon and prep RHP Seth Hernandez are options, but otherwise it's looking like mostly position players as the top options expected to be available for the No. 8 pick,” wrote Kiley McDaniel of ESPN in a recent post about the biggest question each team faces heading into the draft.

Several prep shortstops -- such as JoJo Parker, Billy Carlson, Steele Hall and Daniel Pierce -- could be in the mix for the Blue Jays as potential options.

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If they prefer a more seasoned player with college experience, shortstop Aiva Arquette of Oregon State and catcher/outfielder Ike Irsh of Auburn could be the direction they go in.

As McDaniel noted, there will be multiple pitchers ranked highly enough for Toronto to select at No. 8, but their goal looks to be adding positional players to go with their burgeoning group of young arms.

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