The 2025 season was a resounding success for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. In addition to reaching the World Series for the first time since 1993, the farm system also took a huge step forward. For the first time in years, the team boasts several candidates to be top 100 prospects in all of baseball.

One of those top prospects is right-handed pitcher Gage Stanifer, a 2022 19th-round pick out of high school who broke out in a big way last season. He went through his share of struggles in his first two professional seasons in the lower minors, but found his way up to double-A New Hampshire by season’s end in 2025. He slots in as the sixth-ranked Blue Jays prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

As a 20-year-old in 2024, Stanifer spent the year as a starting pitcher in Single-A Dunedin, battling control issues across his 19 appearances. Despite the tough year, a strong end to the season helped propel him towards his breakout.

“I ended my year in Dunedin with a six and a half ERA, but the last five weeks of the season were probably my best five weeks of the entire year, which put me in a really good spot to go into the offseason,” said Stanifer, speaking with Blue Jays Nation. “I think the biggest thing this season going into the spring was that I had gained a little bit of velo on the fastball. The off-speed had also been in the best shape it’s probably ever been in since being in pro ball. So from a confidence standpoint, everything was just kind of playing in my favour. I felt very confident with all three of my pitches going into spring.”

The Blue Jays had a different plan for the right-hander heading into 2025, moving him to a bulk reliever or ‘piggy-back’ role, alongside top prospect Trey Yesavage. The latter would start the game and typically go five innings, with Stanifer closing out the remaining four.

“It was definitely awesome. He would always set the tone early. I kind of knew I would be coming into the game with a lead,” explained Stanifer. “We always had the bats behind us, and it was literally just us going out there, competing in the zone, and throwing our stuff. They were some of the quickest games I think I’d ever pitched in, but also some of the most fun. Because it’s just two dudes, we got this game, just go to work. Which I think you put both of us in an environment to just compete and be ourselves.”

There may not have been a better prospect success story in recent years than Yesavage’s rise from Single-A to World Series starter. It was on most fans’ radar mid-way through the year that a playoff role may be in the cards by season’s end. His success has set somewhat of a blueprint for Stanifer to follow heading into 2026.

“You see that happen and you realize that if you do well and when they need you, they’re going to call on you,” explained Stanifer. “So as long as you’re consistent and you do your job, you’re putting yourself in a good spot. I came out of the bullpen to start the first eight weeks of the season and then started games the rest of the year, so I’m able to do both roles. So I mean, whatever way I could impact would be awesome.”

Stanifer switched to a full-time starting role in Vancouver at the beginning of June, a role change that helped him continue his ascension as a top prospect.

His three pitch mix – fastball, slider, splitter – generated a ton of swing and miss, amassing the fifth most strikeouts in the minor leagues last year (161 in 110.0 IP), and the best strikeout rate in all of the minors among qualified pitchers (35.5%). His slider is his best strikeout pitch, fooling batters with its unique profile.

“It’s known as a death ball,” explained Stanifer, ominously. “It’s where you have a pretty big discrepancy in vertical drop with very little horizontal movement. So most of the time it’s playing with zero to positive arm side. Sometimes it will even come back arm-side. Kind of like Trey’s arsenal, where everything is arm-side movement. He doesn’t really get any glove side, which I guess was a similarity with our sliders. Mine’s just a little different vertical wise with arm slot. So it plays more like a 12-6 curveball than a true slider.”

As a relief pitcher, it was much easier for the Indianapolis, Indiana native to rely on just his fastball and slider. Of course, success as a starting pitcher usually requires a third offering, something that Stanifer has worked on improving.

“I would say a good majority of this year, I was pretty heavily dependent on my fastball and slider because it always just kind of seemed to work for me,” said Stanifer. “But I did like how in the back half of the year, how I started to implement the splitter more, whether it be to righties or lefties. I feel like it’s always pretty good when I throw it to lefties, but getting comfortable throwing it to righties is going to be huge, especially with me starting to move into the higher minor league levels.”

After excelling in Vancouver for the bulk of the season, Stanifer was awarded with a late-season call-up to Double-A New Hampshire, the affiliate that, in all likelihood, he will start at in 2026. Although the numbers weren’t similar to his dominant outings in previous levels across the small two-outing sample size, the experience should help him heading into next year.

“A lot of good takeaways. I don’t think that the outings were that great, but there were obviously positives and negatives to take out of it,” said Stanifer. “But I mean, just competing in the zone and trusting my stuff, just like I did when I was in Vancouver. I feel like sometimes I try to be a little too fine whenever I am in a new environment, instead of just trusting my stuff and letting whatever happens, happen. So I think that’s my biggest thing is to just go compete instead of trying to be perfect.”

An underrated aspect of a professional baseball player’s game is his appearance while on the field. As Deion Sanders once said, “If you look good, you feel good. You feel good, you play good. You play good, they pay you good.”

Stanifer made an accessory adjustment that coincided with his success in 2025, rocking goggles instead of contact lenses for most of the season.

“I kind of enjoy wearing the goggles because I don’t feel like you see it very often anymore,” said the right-hander. “I feel like it’s kind of like a cool little touch instead of just wearing contacts. I just kind of play around with some different glasses and see how they look. I guess the only reason I wouldn’t wear them would be if there were days it was a little more humid, where the goggles would fog.”

Like many players in the Blue Jays’ organization, Stanifer has spent much of his time around the team’s Player Development Complex (PDC) since the season ended, a state-of-the-art facility that has garnered rave reviews from just about everybody who has spent any time there.

This coincided with the big league team’s epic run to the World Series, allowing him to watch his former teammate shine on the biggest stage.

“You just have to walk in that place to realize…actually, you don’t even have to walk in. You can just look at it from outside the gate and realize how incredible it is,” explains Stanifer. “You have access to so much data and coaching. It was definitely a cool vibe in there whenever the World Series was going on. It was awesome seeing Trey go step-by-step and just continue his dominance, whether it was the first game of low-A or in the World Series.”

After such a successful season, Stanifer’s focus is still on getting better heading into next year. He understands that maintaining his success in the upper minors will be no small task, but knows that he doesn’t need to make any major changes.

“As of now, I’m going to stay with my three pitches, as long as I can zone up the slider and splitter at 40% and keep the fastball percentage at 60%,” says Stanifer. “I think the plan is just to keep it at three. But I mean, there has always been talk about maybe trying something else if it comes to it, which I’m always open to. I’m focused on kind of honing in on everything that I was doing last year. I’m also trying to find more off-field, non-baseball stuff to take care of my body and recover a little bit better. So I think just the overall physical standpoint of my body, just taking care of it better, I think will be pretty helpful this off-season.”

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