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Celwin Hurkmans had a unique journey to the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> have a bright future. In addition to boasting some of the best pitching talent in the MLB<\/a> with the likes of Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Trey Yesavage<\/a>, Shane Bieber<\/a>, Tyler Rogers<\/a>, and Jeff Hoffman<\/a>, they have several prospects of note. Ricky Tiedemann<\/a>, Elian Guzman<\/a>, Brandon Barriera, Carson Messina, and Celwin Hurkmans are also in the fold.<\/p>\n Outside of pitching, the Blue Jays are hot on the tails of a big bat. Currently, a Bo Bichette<\/a> return, or the addition of one of Kyle Tucker<\/a>, Alex Bregman<\/a>, and Yoan Moncada<\/a>, appears to be in the cards. However, if they decide to part ways with Bichette, they have at least one potential\u00a0<\/a>replacement.<\/p>\n As far as pitching prospects go, Hurkmans has had a unique journey to get to this point in his career.<\/p>\n Celwin Hurkmans Unique Journey to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/p>\n Hurkmans was officially signed<\/a> to a minor-league contract on December 10, 2025 \u2014 the same day that the Blue Jays inked free agent Cody Ponce.<\/a><\/p>\n However, according to an interview with HonkbalSoftbal.nl, Hurkmans wasn\u2019t always a pitcher.<\/p>\n \u201cI started pitching two years ago,\u201d Hurkmans said to Emma Dijkstra via HonkbalSoftball<\/a>. Hurkmans cited the influence of pitching coach Robin van Doornspeek on changing positions, \u201cHe told me: if you want to be great, you have to pitch. So that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the change, Hurkmans had spent his entire career as a first baseman.<\/p>\n Additionally, the Blue Jays weren\u2019t the only MLB team to express interest in the budding southpaw.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last month or two months were quite difficult,\u201d Hurkmans continued. \u201cTwo clubs were very interested, so I had a lot of conversations and had to process a lot with my parents. We really discussed everything at home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time a club showed interest in me, I realized that turning pro was truly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurkmans didn\u2019t specify which club first expressed interest in him. However, judging from what Hurkmans had to say about the Blue Jays, there\u2019s a good chance that it was them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Blue Jays said that in 2027, instead of going directly to the Dominican Republic, I\u2019ll go straight to Florida,\u201d Hurkmans revealed. \u201cSo I can play for the Kingdom U18 team next year and finish school. They were very interested in me, both personally and professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n More About Celwin Hurkmans<\/p>\n According to his MLB profile page, Hurkmans is 6-foot-6 and weighs 194 lbs<\/a>, with a 2008 birthday.<\/p>\n Not much data is available about him. However, Hurkmans himself took to social media to share some of his pitching velocities.<\/p>\n According to his own social media post<\/a>, he throws four pitches. Hurkmans\u2019 arsenal is made up of a fastball, two-seam fastball (sinker), curveball, and changeup. His fastball lands between 85-88 MPH, while his two-seam hits 84-87 MPH. Additionally, he hits 75-78 with his curveball and 78-81 with his changeup.<\/p>\n Blue Jays Have Great Pitching Depth<\/p>\n Hurkmans can be added to the pile of pitching prospects that the Blue Jays have. In addition to the arms listed above, they have many more options waiting in the wings. Johnny King<\/a>, Gage Stanifer<\/a>, Jake Bloss<\/a>, and Adam Macko are just a few of the prospects Toronto has in the organization.<\/p>\n Hurkmans will spend the rest of the year in the Netherlands. After which, he will come over to North America and work his way through the ranks.<\/p>\n With a 6-foot-6 frame and the Blue Jays\u2019 significant interest in him, that should lay down a solid foundation for Hurkmans to build on.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tCaleb Kerney<\/a> Caleb covers the NHL for Heavy.com. He has covered professional hockey since 2022, including bylines at Dobber Prospects, The Hockey Writers, and The Hockey News. More about Caleb Kerney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Blue Jays\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Celwin Hurkmans had a unique journey to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Toronto Blue Jays have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-377438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}