<p>If you&#8217;ve found yourself tuning into more minor league affiliated baseball lately than the Blue Jays, you wouldn&#8217;t be the only one. The big league club hasn&#8217;t exactly been a fun watch the last couple of seasons.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So, which of the Jays&#8217; minor league affiliates have caught your eye? Could it be the Bisons and seeing what Orelvis Martinez, Joey Loperfido, and Davis Schneider are up to? Maybe it&#8217;s the Vancouver Canadians in high-A, featuring top prospect Arjun Nimmala as well as Victor Arias, Adrian Pinto, and Juaron Watts-Brown. Or is it the Dunedin Blue Jays and the pitching lab they&#8217;ve got going on right now with the likes of Trey Yesavage, Khal Stephen, Landen Maroudis, Gilberto Batista, and Gage Stanifer?</p>
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<p>The first four names in that Dunedin pitching staff are likely the most familiar to you, since they&#8217;re all pitching out of the rotation and likely have more name recognition. But out of that group, you could easily make the case that Stanifer has been the most impressive.</p>
<h2>A deep dive into Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer</h2>
<p>Stanifer was a 19th-round pick by the Blue Jays out of Westfield High School (Westfield, Indiana) in the 2022 amateur draft. There was some talk that he&#8217;d forego signing with an MLB team to honour his commitment with the Cincinnati Bearcats. Regardless, the Blue Jays took a shot at upside and selected Stanifer late and were able to come to terms with him on a $125,000 signing bonus.</p>
<p>Stanifer didn&#8217;t appear in affiliated action in his draft year and suited up in the Florida Complex League (FCL) the year after to kick off his professional career. His first two pro seasons were split between the FCL and single-A Dunedin, and Stanifer showed an innate ability to miss bats as evidenced 24.4%/23.2% strikeout rates, respectively. The two issues that stood out holding him back from fully breaking out were a bloated walk rate and lots of fly ball contact against him. Thus far in 2025, Stanifer has completely rectified the flyball issues and has made strides in his command, which has allowed his pure raw stuff to thrive.</p>
<p>In his first 22 innings pitched in 2025, Stanifer has produced a 0.41 ERA, 2.71 FIP, 12.4 BB%/34.8 K%, 52.4% ground ball rate, 30.8% CSW, and zero homers against while working in relief, following Yesavage. So he&#8217;s effectively striking out batters at a 99th percentile clip, and whenever batters do make contact,t it&#8217;s on the ground. That&#8217;s a helluva good recipe for a pitcher.</p>
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<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-85795" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" width="747" height="747" srcset="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-300x300.jpg 300w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-150x150.jpg 150w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-768x768.jpg 768w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 747px) 100vw, 747px" /></p>
<p>Stanifer wields a four-pitch mix which includes a sinker, slider, changeup, and 4-seam fastball. All four of his offerings grade as above average by stuff+. His 4-seamer is comfortably a plus pitch, potentially double-plus. It sits in the mid-90s, producing 17.3&#8243; of IVB, 2308 RPM, and is unbelievably flat as evidenced by its -4.3 VAA.</p>
<p>This gives off the illusion that the pitch is &#8220;rising&#8221; which allows it to play incredibly well at the top of the strikezone as evidenced by the hellacious 40% whiff rate. It&#8217;s also the pitch Stanifer uses the least, which is intriguing. His sinker has also produced phenomenal results, and it&#8217;s more of an east-west pitch while the 4-seamer is more north-south. There&#8217;s room to incorporate both in his usage.</p>
<p>The slider may be the best pitch in his arsenal. Hitters in the Florida State League have not been able to touch it. It&#8217;s produced a gaudy 44.8% (!!) whiff rate and .269 xwOBA against. It tunnels extremely well with his sinker and plays against both righties and lefties. It averages 84.8 MPH, but Stanifer can manipulate the speeds depending on the situation. He has a slower slurvy slider he&#8217;ll use to steal a strike early in counts, and a harder gyro type slider he&#8217;ll use to finish batters off with two strikes.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Toronto Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer was unhittable yesterday, coming in after Trey Yesavage. His fastball/slider combo was working great. 4 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K</p>
<p>On the year:</p>
<p>6 G<br />22 IP<br />0.41 ERA (dropped pop up)<br />2.71 FIP<br />34.8 K%<br />12.4 BB%<br />.118 BAA<br />0.91 WHIP<br />14.1 SwStr% <a href="https://t.co/cROMAnhPzh">pic.twitter.com/cROMAnhPzh</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Daniel Labude (@OrcaBaseball) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrcaBaseball/status/1920493778961420338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Stanifer not only has standout stuff that allows him to miss bats and an elite clip, but he&#8217;s also incredibly deceptive with his delivery. It&#8217;s an incredibly short arm circle, which has me drawing some comparisons to Dylan Cease&#8217;s delivery. Stanifer stands at 6-foot-3 and doesn&#8217;t generate elite extension on the mound, but he makes up for it with his deception. The ball explodes out of his hand and gets on top of the batter, which results in some extremely uncomfortable at-bats and some very ugly swings against him.</p>
<p>With the likes of Trey Yesavage and Khal Stephen headlining an elite Dunedin pitching staff, it&#8217;s easy for Stanifer to get lost in the mix. Right now, he&#8217;s pitching out of the bullpen in 3-4 inning spurts, but I fully expect him to slot back into the rotation once the former two guys get promoted to Vancouver.</p>
<p>If you follow Stanifer on Instagram, you&#8217;ll quickly realize just how elite of a work ethic he possesses. A true gym rat, Stanifer is constantly in the lab. Whether that be in the weight room or on the mound. He&#8217;s a tireless worker and has made substantial physical gains since being drafted.</p>
<p>His success this season should not come as a surprise to anyone who&#8217;s followed him throughout his time with the Blue Jays. He&#8217;s a byproduct of his own making, and his stock has only begun its ascension. The sky&#8217;s the limit for this young man.</p>
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If you've found yourself tuning into more minor league affiliated baseball lately than the Blue Jays, you wouldn't be the only one. The big league club hasn't exactly been a fun watch the last couple of seasons.



So, which of the Jays' minor league affiliates have caught your eye? Could it be the Bisons and seeing what Orelvis Martinez, Joey Loperfido, and Davis Schneider are up to? Maybe it's the Vancouver Canadians in high-A, featuring top prospect Arjun Nimmala as well as Victor Arias, Adrian Pinto, and Juaron Watts-Brown. Or is it the Dunedin Blue Jays and the pitching lab they've got going on right now with the likes of Trey Yesavage, Khal Stephen, Landen Maroudis, Gilberto Batista, and Gage Stanifer?
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The first four names in that Dunedin pitching staff are likely the most familiar to you, since they're all pitching out of the rotation and likely have more name recognition. But out of that group, you could easily make the case that Stanifer has been the most impressive.
<h2>A deep dive into Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer</h2>
Stanifer was a 19th-round pick by the Blue Jays out of Westfield High School (Westfield, Indiana) in the 2022 amateur draft. There was some talk that he'd forego signing with an MLB team to honour his commitment with the Cincinnati Bearcats. Regardless, the Blue Jays took a shot at upside and selected Stanifer late and were able to come to terms with him on a $125,000 signing bonus.

Stanifer didn't appear in affiliated action in his draft year and suited up in the Florida Complex League (FCL) the year after to kick off his professional career. His first two pro seasons were split between the FCL and single-A Dunedin, and Stanifer showed an innate ability to miss bats as evidenced 24.4%/23.2% strikeout rates, respectively. The two issues that stood out holding him back from fully breaking out were a bloated walk rate and lots of fly ball contact against him. Thus far in 2025, Stanifer has completely rectified the flyball issues and has made strides in his command, which has allowed his pure raw stuff to thrive.

In his first 22 innings pitched in 2025, Stanifer has produced a 0.41 ERA, 2.71 FIP, 12.4 BB%/34.8 K%, 52.4% ground ball rate, 30.8% CSW, and zero homers against while working in relief, following Yesavage. So he's effectively striking out batters at a 99th percentile clip, and whenever batters do make contact,t it's on the ground. That's a helluva good recipe for a pitcher.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img class="alignnone wp-image-85795" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/20250508_114135-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" width="747" height="747" />

Stanifer wields a four-pitch mix which includes a sinker, slider, changeup, and 4-seam fastball. All four of his offerings grade as above average by stuff+. His 4-seamer is comfortably a plus pitch, potentially double-plus. It sits in the mid-90s, producing 17.3" of IVB, 2308 RPM, and is unbelievably flat as evidenced by its -4.3 VAA.

This gives off the illusion that the pitch is "rising" which allows it to play incredibly well at the top of the strikezone as evidenced by the hellacious 40% whiff rate. It's also the pitch Stanifer uses the least, which is intriguing. His sinker has also produced phenomenal results, and it's more of an east-west pitch while the 4-seamer is more north-south. There's room to incorporate both in his usage.

The slider may be the best pitch in his arsenal. Hitters in the Florida State League have not been able to touch it. It's produced a gaudy 44.8% (!!) whiff rate and .269 xwOBA against. It tunnels extremely well with his sinker and plays against both righties and lefties. It averages 84.8 MPH, but Stanifer can manipulate the speeds depending on the situation. He has a slower slurvy slider he'll use to steal a strike early in counts, and a harder gyro type slider he'll use to finish batters off with two strikes.

https://twitter.com/OrcaBaseball/status/1920493778961420338

Stanifer not only has standout stuff that allows him to miss bats and an elite clip, but he's also incredibly deceptive with his delivery. It's an incredibly short arm circle, which has me drawing some comparisons to Dylan Cease's delivery. Stanifer stands at 6-foot-3 and doesn't generate elite extension on the mound, but he makes up for it with his deception. The ball explodes out of his hand and gets on top of the batter, which results in some extremely uncomfortable at-bats and some very ugly swings against him.

With the likes of Trey Yesavage and Khal Stephen headlining an elite Dunedin pitching staff, it's easy for Stanifer to get lost in the mix. Right now, he's pitching out of the bullpen in 3-4 inning spurts, but I fully expect him to slot back into the rotation once the former two guys get promoted to Vancouver.

If you follow Stanifer on Instagram, you'll quickly realize just how elite of a work ethic he possesses. A true gym rat, Stanifer is constantly in the lab. Whether that be in the weight room or on the mound. He's a tireless worker and has made substantial physical gains since being drafted.

His success this season should not come as a surprise to anyone who's followed him throughout his time with the Blue Jays. He's a byproduct of his own making, and his stock has only begun its ascension. The sky's the limit for this young man.

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Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer deserves your attention

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