Back from the seven-day concussion IL, right-hander Nolan Perry picked up exactly where he left off in Thursday’s return.

The Toronto Blue Jays’ top pitching prospect didn’t allow a hit across three innings against the Portland Sea Dogs — the Boston Red Sox’s Double-A affiliate — recording one walk and four strikeouts on 36 pitches (23 strikes). He handed the ball to fellow pitching prospect Gage Stanifer, who issued five walks and strikeouts each over four innings of one-run ball in his first relief appearance of the season.

Perry, Rule 5-eligible after this season and virtually guaranteed to be added to the organization’s 40-man roster, has yet to allow a run through three starts with New Hampshire. In that span, he’s allowed only a trio of hits and walks while punching out 11 in 7.1 innings.

This marked Perry’s first start since being struck on the side of the head by a line drive in his previous outing on July 19, causing him to depart with one out in the second inning. He then spent the next few weeks on the shelf before clearing the league’s concussion protocol and being activated from the IL prior to first pitch on Thursday.

The 22-year-old righty has been among Toronto’s brightest development stories this season, sporting a dazzling 2.29 ERA and 2.77 FIP with a 29.9 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate in 15 appearances (14 starts) split across three minor-league levels (Single-A, High-A and Double-A).

After missing all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Perry — a 12th-round selection in ’22 with a signing bonus of just $200,000 — has quickly shot up the franchise’s prospect rankings this year, surpassing the likes of Johnny King and Stanifer as the top pitcher in the system. He’ll likely conclude the current campaign in New Hampshire. However, there’s a chance he could make his major league debut sometime next season.

Perry will first need to impress at the Triple-A circuit in 2027. But if everything runs smoothly in Buffalo, he’ll eventually join fellow prospect Jake Bloss and possibly Spencer Miles — pending his future as a starter, as the club will be able to option him down starting next season — as MLB-calibre starting pitching depth.

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