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Toronto Blue Jays' historic top prospect will play this year in Vancouver

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Apr 2 2025, 7:30 pm
Toronto Blue Jays' historic top prospect will play this year in Vancouver
Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays are keeping their top talent in Canada this season — although he’ll still be a few thousand kilometres away from Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

Today, they announced that shortstop Arjun Nimmala will start the season with the Vancouver Canadians, generating a bit of buzz around the fanbase.

The team’s first-round pick at 20th overall in the 2023 draft, Nimmala is Toronto’s top prospect, per MLB.com, and 85th overall in the major leagues. At just 19, he’s spent the last two years playing both rookie-ball and Single-A while at Toronto’s minor league complex in Dunedin, Florida.

Though he had some growing pains last year, he finished the year mashing 16 home runs and picking up 46 RBIs in 82 games last year while batting .232 for Dunedin last season.

“A lot of good players struggle. It doesn’t matter where, but they’re able to get out of it. Mine was early. I’m glad to have gotten out of it, and I’ll carry those things I learned all the way up to Toronto,” said in an interview with MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson in spring training.

Nimmala also has a chance to set MLB history as soon as he cracks the majors, as he is slated to be the first player born to Indian parents to ever suit up in an MLB game. Nimmala’s parents emigrated to the U.S. from the Andhra Pradesh province in India, making him the highest-drafted first-generation Indian American in MLB history.

“That means a lot — there’s not many Indian American players in the big leagues. For Indians, it’s mostly cricket. The transition to baseball has been a lot,” Nimmala said in an interview with MLB Network at the 2023 Draft Combine. “Hopefully, one day, I can inspire young Indian Americans to play and get more Indians in the sport.”

Five other top 30 Blue Jays prospects join Nimmala on the Canadians roster: No. 12 RHP Fernando Perez, No. 17 RHP Juaron Watts-Brown, No. 20 INF Sean Keys, No. 23 INF Adrian Pinto, and No. 30 OF Victor Arias.

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