Nate Pearson destroyed hopes and dreams in Double-A last night

The surging pitching prospect has burst into the mainstream with dominant performances at the Futures Game during All-Star weekend and constantly missing bats in the minors, but last night he took his dominance to a whole different level.

In his 12th start since being promoted to Double-A New Hampshire, Pearson threw a total of 5 and 2/3 innings and didn’t allow a single hit while punching out eight batters. If you just think of an ideal statline that would show hype and potential in a pitching prospect, Pearson’s line from last night was even better.

While striking-out eight and not allowing a hit is sensational, Pearson’s fastball was touching 101 MPH and stayed consistently within 97-98 MPH. That velocity earned him to allow only a single walk on the night as well.

Not only does his stats from the night look amazing, his pitches were a thing of pure baseball beauty.

Not only can Pearson blast the ball with some of the highest velocity in the minors, but he will completely avoid some bats and leave batters stunned mid-swing.

One of the best pitching prospects in baseball has been getting a ton of more attention and it’s rightly deserved.

You can watch this clip a hundred times over and it’s still gorgeous every single time. Pearson has been able to keep his high velocity through his time in the minors and in New Hampshire especially.

Through 40 innings in Double-A, Pearson has been striking out batters at a 10.13 K/9 rate and keeping a 2.93 ERA. Before his promotion, he spent his time in High-A Dunedin, pitching his first real innings since 2017, and kept a 15 K/9 with a 0.86 ERA — absolutely insane.

His ability to go from blistering heaters to breaking balls that will sink perfectly in the right place is one of the reasons why he is so highly touted.

And finally, he was obviously getting insane strikeouts with his patented velocity. Gotta love it.

If Pearson continues to finish out the year in Double-A, or even get promoted to Triple-A (like some are reporting as a possibility), there is a chance that we see the big man in Toronto sometime next season.

His recent performances have earned him some hype from respected prospect sources as well. Recently he was listed as one of the risers by Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel — moving his 50 future value (FV) to a 55 grade.

This moves the Blue Jays prospect into the same level as other hyped-up pitchers like Sixto Sanchez, Forrest Whitley, Luis Patino, Jesus Luzardo, and Ian Anderson — some of those might be under Jays control by the time the deadline passes.

With all the projected movement and transactions that will happen in the next week, there will be even more attention paid to the future of this organization and Pearson is in that top-tier of prospects that fans should know.