The Blue Jays brought eight players to the Arizona Fall League, and the first week has already offered a pretty clean read on where a few of those names stand.
On the position-player side, the most interesting early work has come from outfielders Jake Cook and Jake Casey, with catcher Aaron Parker also trying to keep his momentum rolling. On the mound, the attention is centered on Jake Bloss, Brandon Barriera, Yondrei Rojas, Gilberto Batista and Fernando Perez, all of whom are using the AFL for different reasons, whether that means extra reps, a chance to show they’re healthy, or one more audition before roster decisions arrive.
Cook has opened with the strongest line of the group. In four games, the 20th-ranked prospect is hitting .364/.500/.364 with one RBI and five stolen bases.
The power is not the selling point here - his 30-grade pop isn’t what gets him noticed - but the speed absolutely is, with Cook carrying an 80-grade running tool. The swing-and-miss remains the issue, though, and his strikeout rate has climbed to 35.7% after sitting at 27.6% during the season.
Casey, ranked No. 23 by MLB Pipeline, has appeared in the most games of any Blue Jay in the league so far. Over five games, he’s hitting .125/.333/.375 with one home run, two RBI and five stolen bases.
His calling card has been speed, and he’s still showing plenty of it, but the strikeouts are piling up at a 42.9% clip. During the regular season, that number was 28.1%.
Casey is trying to make up for time lost after breaking his hamate early in the year.
Parker has only gotten into one game, but he made it count. He went 3-for-5 with one RBI and one stolen base.
It follows a 2026 season in which he broke out at Double-A, finishing with a career-high 19 home runs. That power came with a 32.3% strikeout rate, and that remains the major checkpoint for him moving forward.
Bloss is one of the more notable arms in the group. Ranked No. 11, he missed most of 2026 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and a teres major strain, so the Fall League is about getting back into rhythm after all that lost time.
He has made one appearance and thrown two scoreless innings. There’s also a practical layer here: Bloss is out of options heading into 2027, so how he finishes here could matter when the Blue Jays sort through their pitching plans.
Barriera’s path is similar in some ways and very different in others. The former first-round pick from the 2022 MLB Draft has spent much of his first four seasons battling injuries, and the AFL gives him another chance to log innings.
In his lone appearance, he worked two innings, allowed one run and struck out two. He’s also Rule 5 eligible this offseason, although that path looks unlikely given his 2026 line - a 4.89 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in 38.2 innings - and the fact that he has only reached High-A.
Rojas has made two appearances and thrown four innings, giving up one run while walking two and striking out four. His 2026 season was a step back from 2025, when he posted a 1.43 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in 37.2 innings.
This year, he finished with a 5.47 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. The big question with him is whether the swing-and-miss can come back; his strikeout rate dropped from 32.4% in 2025 to 20.6%.
He is also Rule 5 eligible.
Batista, acquired in the Danny Jansen trade, has had a tough run over the last two seasons, with a 6.42 ERA and 1.56 WHIP across 172.1 innings. In two Fall League games, he has thrown two innings, allowed two earned runs, walked three and struck out three. His walk rate is the number to watch after climbing from 5.9% in 2025 to 11% in 2026.
Perez entered the AFL after a major stumble in 2026, following a strong 2025 that saw him post a 3.04 ERA and 1.16 WHIP between High-A and Double-A. He was eventually placed on the Development List, and his first outing in Arizona didn’t reverse the trend.
Perez threw 1.1 innings, allowed four hits and two earned runs, and walked two. The issue is command: his walk rate ballooned from 5.6% in 2025 to 24.8% in 2026.
He’s also Rule 5 eligible.
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