Coming off of a tough 52-84 2024 season, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats will look to turn their play around in 2025. The Toronto Blue Jays’ double-A affiliate plays their season opener today (Friday) against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

This is part two of a series examining each level of the Jays’ farm system. It will examine the top players to watch at the AA level. If you missed part one, which covered the triple-A Buffalo Bisons, you can read it here.

Before diving into any specific players, here’s how the opening-day roster has shaped up for the Fisher Cats:

As is more and more common, the lower you look within the minor league ranks, poor seasons aren’t necessarily indicative of a bad team. Often, it can signify that a team lost their best players due to promotion part-way through a campaign.

The team’s two best bats of 2024, Alan Roden and Riley Tirotta, both earned promotions to Buffalo before the season’s end. Roden has continued his climb, cracking the major league opening roster this year for the Jays.

Pair that with a tough year for the team’s pitching (Trenton Wallace was the only starter below a 4.00 ERA with a 2.68), and the squad’s path to a winning season continued to disappear as the season progressed.

To replace their losses from last season, two of the Jays’ top 30 prospects have been called up to New Hampshire’s opening day roster from the A+ Vancouver Canadians.

Ranked 25th on the top 30, the well-rounded Jace Bohrofen will hope to make an impact after hitting .254 from the left side of the plate with 14 home runs and 10 steals with the 2024 Vancouver crew.

He played all across the outfield throughout that year, registering only a single error through 100 games. While the Jays have a backlog of talent building in the outfield as of current, more solid, all-around play from Bohrofen should see him reach triple-A eventually.

Scroll four slots further down the top prospects list, and you’ll find the other new Fisher Cat at 29th, Peyton Williams.

Standing at an imposing 6’5, 255 pounds, Williams is a pure left-handed power hitter. He had a great last season with the Vancouver Canadians, batting .289 with an .839 OPS and 11 home runs. The first baseman is bound to continue working his way through the ranks if he’s able to maintain his power and contact through the challenge that is double-A ball (and also boasts the best nickname, ‘The Iowa Meat Truck’).

Fans who don’t follow minor league baseball closely would’ve gotten their first look at him during last year’s Arizona Fall League home run derby, which was shared by the Jays on their X page:

As for the new pitchers, right-handers Alex Amalfi and Ryan Watson got their promotions to Manchester, New Hampshire, this offseason as well.

Amalfi will provide bullpen support after posting a 3.28 ERA with two saves and 87 strikeouts through 68.2 innings with the Canadians, while Watson should get some starts for the Fisher Cats after he made four for the Canadians to the tune of a 3.72 ERA last year.

Four more top 30 Jays prospects who’ve already played at least one season with the Fisher Cats made the team’s opening day roster for 2025. Blue Jays Nation writer Ryley Delaney has already written pieces about these players, so for brevity, her stories will be linked to alongside each player’s Toronto prospect ranking and their stats from 2024.

Charles McAdoo (INF):

BJN ranking: 13

MiLB.com ranking: 14

2024 stats with AA New Hampshire: 37 G, 143 PA, .186/.287/.323 slash

RJ Schreck (OF):

BJN ranking: 19

MiLB.com ranking: 21

2024 stats with AA New Hampshire: 28 G, 114 PA, .255/.377/.521 slash

Ryan Jennings (RHP):

BJN ranking: 21

MiLB.com ranking: 22

2024 stats with AA New Hampshire: 10 G (one start), 10.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 0.900 WHIP

Dasan Brown (OF):

BJN ranking: 28

MiLB.com ranking: 28

2024 stats with AA New Hampshire: 32 G, 118 PA, .217/.285/.302 slash

Whether or not the Fisher Cats can improve upon last year depends entirely on their pitching staff. As mentioned earlier, only one starter, Trenton Wallace, finished with an ERA below four in 2024. With Wallace now on the Bisons after his solid showing, it leaves the staff in an even worse spot.

Unfortunately, not much is changing for the Fisher Cats to start the season. Twelve pitchers from the 2024 crew are back for another year, including four starters and eight bullpen arms. Jennings is the only top 30 Jays’ prospect in that group.

That means that despite having a solid bunch of hitters, the team will be limited by how well their pitchers can adapt to the AA level this season compared to last. Expect this to be the main story to follow throughout the season, and keep an eye on any arms called up midway through from high-A – they’ll be asked to take on a big role right away.