The Toronto Blue Jays have only a handful of starting pitching prospects in Triple-A. Today’s prospect is one of them.
This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual 40-man Roster Review, where we look at the players on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster. We’ll look at how the player performed in 2024, his season projections for the 2025 season, and any storylines heading into this coming season. In this article, we’ll look at Jake Bloss.
The Houston Astros selected Bloss in the third round of the 2023 draft and he quickly became one of their top prospects. In 2023 with the Complex League team and their Single-A team, Bloss had a 2.89 ERA and a 3.36 FIP in 18.2 innings pitched, along with a 29.1 K% and a 15.2 BB%.
Bloss started the 2024 season in High-A, where he had a 2.08 ERA and a 2.81 FIP in 17.1 innings pitched, with a 36.8 K% and an 11.8 BB%. In Double-A, Bloss authored a 1.61 ERA and 3.30 FIP in 44.2 innings pitched, with a 21.2 K% and a 7.9 BB%. He also had a one-game stint in Triple-A with the Astros, where he didn’t allow a run in four innings of work.
Due to a depleted rotation, the Astros called up Bloss rather early. In three starts, the 23-year-old had a 6.94 ERA and a 7.62 FIP in 11.2 innings pitched, with a 20.0 K% and a 5.5 BB%. Before the 2024 trade deadline, the Astros traded him, Will Wagner, and Joey Loperfido to the Blue Jays for Yusei Kikuchi.
Unlike the Astros, the Blue Jays didn’t call Bloss up to their big league team. Instead, he pitched eight starts in Triple-A with the Buffalo Bisons, posting a 6.91 ERA and a 5.87 FIP in 27.1 innings pitched, with a 19.1 K% and an 11.5 BB%. His first three starts didn’t see him allow an earned run, before giving up 21 in 17.2 innings in his last five starts.
Bloss is expected to start in the minor leagues next season, but Fangraphs’ projections are still out for him. Steamer has him authoring a 4.86 ERA and a 4.88 FIP in 91 innings pitched, while ATC is the cruelest to him, projecting the 23-year-old righty to have a 4.93 ERA and a 4.96 FIP in 81 innings pitched. As for OOPSY, it has him posting a 4.81 ERA and a 4.98 FIP in 89 innings pitched.
The big storyline coming into the 2025 season is that the Blue Jays don’t have a whole lot of depth in the upper minors for starting pitchers. Both Ricky Tiedemann and Chad Dallas were seen as depth options, but both dealt with injuries and eventually went down with Tommy John. As did Alek Manoah, who could become available to the Blue Jays in August. So barring any acquisitions for depth starters, Bloss is the next starter up for the Blue Jays in 2025.
As always, you can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.