Badly needed this. Arjun stock back up 📈📈📈
3 prospects the Blue Jays should avoid trading this off-season
Photo credit: © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Nov 20, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 20, 2025, 11:33 EST
It’s going to be a busy off-season for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The team is going to be heavily involved in the free agent market, already being considered the favourite to land Kyle Tucker. There’s also a strong chance they’ll be active on the trade market, as was the case last season.
Their first notable move of the 2024/25 off-season saw them trade Spencer Horwitz and prospect Nick Mitchell to the Cleveland Guardians. They then made another trade with the Guardians the following month, acquiring International Free Agency bonus pool money and Myles Straw, essentially a cap dump.
General manager Ross Atkins has already noted that they’ve engaged with other teams about trades, but there are a few prospects the Blue Jays should look to avoid trading. Let’s take a look at three of them.
Trey Yesavage
Trey Yesavage is the only prospect on the Blue Jays who is considered untouchable. Drafted 20th overall in the 2024 draft, the 22-year-old right-handed pitcher had a rapid ascent up the minor league ladder, reaching all four “A” levels.
By the end of the season, Yesavage found his way on the big league team, making three starts where he had a 3.21 ERA and 2.35 FIP in 14 innings pitched. Yesavage made the Blue Jays’ postseason roster and even had two historic starts, Game 2 against the New York Yankees and Game 5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
He’s their ace of the future, but the Blue Jays may get the added benefit of an additional draft pick. The prospect promotion incentive pick was introduced in 2022, and if Yesavage were to win the 2026 Rookie of the Year award, the Jays would get a pick following the first round, a huge benefit in terms of bonus pool money.
Under no circumstances should the Blue Jays trade Yesavage.
JoJo Parker
Beginning at the start of the off-season, the Blue Jays’ 2025 draftees are eligible to be traded, including first-rounder JoJo Parker.
Suffering through the Blue Jays’ 2024 season, when they went 74-88, will be worth it for Parker’s potential. During their mid-season update, MLB Pipeline ranked the infielder as their 43rd-best prospect in baseball. The bat is what’s special here, as he was given a 60-grade hit tool and 55-grade power tools.
Defensively, he’ll likely move off shortstop in the future to play either third base or second base, but there’s still a lot to like about the 18-year-old. He has yet to make his professional debut, but expect him to begin in either the Florida Complex League or Single-A when the season begins.
Parker isn’t untouchable like Yesavage, but the only way the Blue Jays should trade him is if they get a top-tier player with control, think Paul Skenes or Tarik Skubal with an extension.
Arjun Nimmala
The three prospects mentioned in this article are the Blue Jays’ last three first-round picks, which kind of feels obvious. There are other players I thought about putting in this spot, such as Ricky Tiedemann, Gage Stanifer, or Johnny King, but I chose 2023 first-rounder Arjun Nimmala.
Nimmala has a ton of talent and ranks as MLB Pipeline’s 68th-best prospect in baseball. Nimmala has massive power and will stick at short, but the reason I include him here is due to the season he had in 2025.
The Jays’ shortstop prospect began the season in High-A Vancouver as a 19-year-old, but got off to a great start. In the first two months of the season, Nimmala slashed .289/.372/.528 with nine home runs in 207 plate appearances for a 144 wRC+.
However, the rest of his season didn’t go nearly as well, as he slashed just .184/.277/.290 with four home runs in 336 plate appearances for a 58 wRC+. Overall, Nimmala finished the season slashing .224/.313/.381 with 13 home runs in 543 plate appearances for a 91 wRC+, but his K% dropped from 30.7% in 2024 to 21.4%, a positive sign.
That said, Nimmala’s value dropped quite a bit due to the final three months. Thankfully, there’s a reason for the decline in play, as The Athletic’s Keith Law noted that Nimmala played through injuries in 2025, implying that injuries played a large part in Nimmala’s decline in the second half.
There’s also the fact that there were only seven qualified hitters who were 19 years or younger in High-A last season, with Nimmala receiving the most plate appearances of the bunch. Colt Emerson’s 125 wRC+ was the best of the seven, and like Nimmala, he played in the six-team Northwest League. A league that small could’ve also played a role in Nimmala’s rough second half.
Due to Nimmala’s talent level, he shouldn’t be traded unless the Jays get a significant return. And because of his rough 2025, his value is lower than it was last off-season.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.