With roughly a month and a half in the books in the minor league season, the Blue Jays issued a wave of transactions in recent days. The most attention-grabbing move was top pitching prospects Trey Yesavage, Khal Stephen, and Gage Stanifer moving up from single-A Dunedin to high-A Vancouver. This pushed two Vancouver starters up to double-A, who were having excellent seasons: Grant Rogers and Juaron Watts-Brown.

Rogers exits high-A as the Northwest League’s ERA leader (1.82) while also appearing in the top five in opponents’ batting average (.215). The 6-foot-7 right-hander added some velocity on his fastball over the offseason and now sits around 93-95, allowing him to strike out around a batter per inning. His ability to go right after hitters and limit walks has allowed him to excel in 2025.

For Watts-Brown, 2025 marks a season in which he’s truly put it all together.

Watts-Brown has been as successful as Rogers, albeit in a different way. The #16 Blue Jays prospect per MLB Pipeline leads the circuit in strikeouts with 62 in just 37 1/3 innings pitched. Even though he won’t be in the league any longer, it may be a couple of weeks before he moves down from the top spot, since he leads the field by 15 punchouts.

For the former Oklahoma State Cowboy, walks were the thing that held him back in 2024. He made nine starts in the second half last year in high-A, producing a 6.35 ERA in 45 1/3 innings. The strikeout stuff was there – 57 punchouts, good for an 11.3 K/9 – but he also walked 6.2 batters per nine innings. This year, the strikeout rate has climbed to a whopping 14.9 mark (7th best in MILB), while managing a solid 2.9 BB/9.

Watts-Brown uses a mid-90s heater, a lethal slider/curveball combination, and a changeup to keep hitters off balance. He typically throws his curveball for strikes, while using his slider as his main swing and miss pitch. MLB Pipeline confirms that his highest-rated pitch is the 60-grade slider, which may actually be selling it short.

With more success in double-A over the next couple of months, we might see Watts-Brown vault up the Blue Jays’ prospect list and possibly even sneak into the back end of the MLB top 100 list.

If there is a concern for the six-foot-three right-hander, it may be his ability to pitch late in games. He was only able to complete five innings in three of his eight starts for Vancouver, increasing the chances that he may end up in the bullpen someday, especially if some of the command issues return at some point. However, it’s worth noting that he was able to go at least five innings in each of his last two starts, including a dazzling six-inning, two-hit effort in which he struck out 10 batters without walking a batter:

It may be time to start thinking of Watts-Brown as one of the top couple of pitching prospects in the organization. If he can replicate his success at the double-A level, it won’t be long before the national media starts to take notice.