The fate of five prospects of the Toronto Blue Jays could be up in the air after Tuesday. That’s the day all 30 MLB teams have to submit their 40-man rosters and there are some interesting names currently on the table that the Blue Jays have to make a big decision on.
The players that aren’t on the 40-man will be left exposed to the Rule 5 Draft in December and Toronto General Manager Ross Atkins will have to weigh which ones he is comfortable losing and which ones he feels he can’t let slip away.
Which Blue Jays prospects will be unprotected after Tuesday’s 40-man roster deadline?
The five names up for consideration are all top 13 prospects in the Blue Jays system. That includes LHP Ricky Tiedemann (No. 4), OF Yohendrick Pinango (No. 7), OF Victor Arias (No. 9), SS Josh Kasevich (No. 12) and C Edwin Duran (No. 13). As of Saturday morning the Blue Jays have 37 players on the 40-man and there are pros and cons to each individual player on this list. The Blue Jays wouldn’t want to let any of them go for nothing, but sometimes a GM just has to leave that up to fate.
Tiedemann feels like the most obvious guy to put on the 40-man. Tiedemann was Toronto’s third round draft pick in 2021 and the 6’4″ left hander has a ton of upside. However, at 23-years-old Tiedemann is still trying to find his footing as a professional baseball player as he he’s thrown just 60 innings in the minor leagues since the beginning of 2023 – missing all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The Blue Jays could elect not to put him on the 40-man in the hopes that other teams will see his injury history and decide not to take him, since that would mean giving Tiedemann a roster spot for the entire season at the big league level and it’s clear he’s got some work to do before he’s actually ready. However, there are teams out there who are going to be thin on pitching and won’t compete for the major arms on the free agent market that would love to take him based on that upside potential.
Pinango is a really interesting name on this list. The left-handed hitting outfielder from Venezuela has climbed three levels of baseball in the last two seasons. He was picked up in a trade with the Chicago Cubs at the 2024 trade deadline and since coming into the Blue Jays system he has started to turn heads as a guy that could be a good contact hitter with some pop. He finished 2025 with Triple-A Buffalo and across both AAA and AA this past year he hit .258/.361/.430 with 15 home runs. He had 107 strikeouts but 70 walks and 117 hits in 131 games.
The Blue Jays do have some depth among their outfield contingent including Joey Loperfido and Jonatan Clase, so Pinango could be expendable, but Toronto is more likely to put the 23-year-old Venezuelan on the 40-man.
His fellow country man, Arias, is only 22 years old and has a similar profile to Pinango and just made it Double-A New Hampshire this past season. He struggled in his first go around hitting .226/.293/.331 with just two home runs, so the Blue Jays are probably safe to leave Arias off the 40-man.
Kasavich is a player that could take up that third spot as this feels like a “make-it-or-break-it” season for the 24-year-old shortstop/third baseman. Drafted in the second round of the 2022 MLB draft, Kasevich has appeared in 70 games at Triple-A over the last two seasons, producing modest results when healthy.
He’s hit .267/.338/.337 but has never shown much power with just three home runs in those 70 games. But the organization loves the way he plays his position and they feel he can be one of the best contact hitters in the organization.
For the Blue Jays, adding Kasevich to the 40-man would deepen their infield depth, especially if they aren’t able to bring back Bo Bichette, who is currently a free agent. Although, Toronto does have Andrés Giménez, Ernie Clement and Addison Barger at the big league level while they’ve also drafted other shortstop / third base type players in recent years, including Arjun Nimmala and JoJo Parker.
Lastly, catcher Duran was picked up in a trade in 2022 as a player to be named later in a deal with the Marlins. Duran spent this past summer with High-A Vancouver hitting a very respectable .296/.378/.439 in 66 games. His offesnse is coming along and, like Kasevich, he’s praised for his defense, while he’s also fast…for a catcher. Just 21-years-old Duran is likely a player who the Blue Jays could avoid putting on the 40-man and feel comfortable that no other team will try and snatch him in the Rule 5 Draft.