Blue Jays' top prospect Ricky Tiedemann could make Opening Day roster
The Toronto Blue Jays are getting a little closer to narrowing down their final roster, and there’s one name in particular that seems to be drawing the attention of the team’s fan base.
Left-handed pitcher Ricky Tiedemann, who was selected in the third round of the 2021 Major League Baseball draft by the Blue Jays, remains with the club, with the possibility of making his major league debut in the near future.
Today, Toronto manager John Schneider suggested that Tiedemann remained on a list of players that the team is looking at to possibly crack Toronto’s 26-man Opening Day roster, as per Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.
If he's not ready to break with team, Schneider mentioned Mitch White, Yariel Rordiguez, Wes Parsons, Paolo Espino and Ricky Tiedemann. "There are a lot of guys kind of in that conversation," he said.
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) March 22, 2024
However, Tiedemann himself is still erring on the side of making his debut later in the season.
“If I had to guess, [the team would] start me out light, so that they can utilize me later on in the year when it really matters, rather than trying to throw me out there in the beginning of the year, then I reach my innings limit and then kind of have to pull back the reins on me,” Tiedemann said yesterday, as per MLB.com’s Julia Kreuz.
“I don’t think they want to do that, and I definitely don’t want to do that. So if we can ramp up the year in the right way so I can get to the Major Leagues later in the year rather than the beginning, [that will be ideal].”
Tiedemann has put up a 5.40 ERA across three spring starts, going a total of 6.2 innings. Across two seasons in the Blue Jays’ minor league system, he’s gone 5-9 with a 2.71 ERA in 122.2 innings pitched, making stops in Vancouver, Dunedin, New Hampshire, and Buffalo, as well as a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League.
We’re now less than a week out from Opening Day of the 2024 regular season for Toronto, when the Jays travel to Tampa Bay on March 28 to take on the Rays. Meanwhile, the Jays make their return to the Rogers Centre on April 8, when they host the Seattle Mariners.
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