The top prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays system is scheduled to make his season debut on Thursday.

According to TSN’s Scott Mitchell, Ricky Tiedemann will take the mound as the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats take on the Portland Sea Dogs…

Tiedemann, who the Blue Jays selected in the third round of the 2021 draft, is coming into this season with a tremendous amount of hype after a breakout showing in 2022. The 20-year-old posted a sparkling 2.17 ERA over 78 2/3 innings between Low-A, High-A, and Double-A last season and came into 2023 ranked as baseball’s No. 15 prospect by Baseball Prospectus.

Tiedemann made a couple of starts for the Blue Jays during spring training but got shut down because he was dealing with shoulder soreness. In his first outing, Tiedemann struck out two in a clean frame against the Detroit Tigers. His second outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates resulted in two earned runs over the course of two innings.

Given how quickly he rose through the system last year, there’s genuine optimism that Tiedemann could be an internal option for Toronto’s big-league pitching staff at some point during the season. While he might not immediately jump into a starting pitcher role like Alek Manoah did back in 2021, a flame-throwing lefty could be a huge addition to the Blue Jays bullpen down the stretch.