The annual Vancouver Canadians “Hot Stove Luncheon” is taking place as I type this out in B.C., and apparently Ross Atkins is there! I mostly know this because Andrew Walker and Scott Rintoul were talking about it on last night’s edition of The Program on Sportsnet 650 Vancouver, and had Atkins on as a guest, wherein he talked about the offseason, the club’s top prospects, the Christian Yelich trade, and more.

I could probably do a whole “Atkins Speaks” piece about the interview, but since it’s beer o’clock on a Friday, I’m thinking fuck it. I do, however, need to share the one tidbit that really jumped out at me during the course of the fifteen or twenty minute discussion. So here you go:

WALKER: On the subject of Vancouver, I moved here in the fall and I got to see a few Canadians games late, in the playoffs, and watching Nate Pearson was revelatory, I would say. He cracks Baseball America’s top 100 prospects — you must be over the moon with the progress he’s made. He put up ridiculous numbers in his time here.

ATKINS: In the time I’ve been in a front office, I can’t recall a player like this. Just how far he’s come in such a short period of time. He actually reminds me of a guy that I was with in the minor leagues, Bartolo Colon, as far as just overall stuff, and overpowering. I mean, we have obviously been extremely encouraged by Nate. At the same time, he’s first year into professional baseball. So there’s a lot of development opportunity — and that’s a good thing. There’s a lot of growth [still] for him. But man, the stuff, the power, the character, the make-up, the athleticism — there’s nothing not to like. So we couldn’t be more pleased, and absolutely do value the fact that the industry sees him that way.

Yowza!

Especially when you consider it coming on the heels of a thing like this:

Atkins is telling anyone who will listen just how highly he thinks of this kid.

Now, obviously there might be a little bit of chess going on here. Obviously the GM isn’t going to say he doesn’t like the player they just used a first round draft pick on, and one can see pretty easily that there might be value in planting the seeds now that the club really believes in what it’s doing as far as drafting and development go, and that their processes are already paying dividends. But you don’t hear that about Logan Warmoth! Even though Warmoth is still surely very much liked by the Jays themselves, and the industry as a whole (in a chat this week at The Dish, Keith Law addressed a fan who was wondering whether his opinion of the shortstop had changed, seeing as KLaw was “quite high” on him going into the draft. The blunt answer: “No.” He might not be on the top 100, but he’s still an excellent prospect — don’t you worry.)

Pearson, though, did make KLaw’s top 100, as well as B.A.’s, eliciting the comment, “the Blue Jays might have caught themselves quite a fish with the 28th pick.” So it ain’t just Atkins. And it might not be long until the Jays have another prospect for us to get unduly excited about. (Just exercise caution with all that — as I discussed today in a piece for the Athletic, which looked at Vladimir Guerrero’s current status, as well as the ghosts of prospects past.)