Blue Jays pitching prospect Jake Bloss to undergo UCL surgery
TORONTO — Jake Bloss entered 2025 as an ace up the Toronto Blue Jays' sleeve. The 23-year-old right-hander and No. 6 prospect in Toronto's farm system, according to The Athletic's Keith Law, started the season in Triple A waiting for his next crack at the big leagues.
Now Bloss, the key piece of the 2024 trade deadline deal that sent Yusei Kikuchi to the Houston Astros, will undergo ulnar collateral ligament surgery, another blow to the Blue Jays' rotation depth.
'Don't know the extent of the surgery or exactly when it's going to happen,' manager John Schneider said on Tuesday. 'But it's going to happen with Dr. (Keith) Meister.'
Jake Bloss: spin doctor 🩺
The @BlueJays' No. 9 prospect racks up five punchouts in three scoreless innings — four using the slider. pic.twitter.com/aDWYe1TEqv
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) March 10, 2025
Just days before Bloss' injury, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins called the righty 'an option right now' to help the MLB club. He'd pitched consecutive Triple-A outings for the Buffalo Bisons without surrendering an earned run in late April. With minor delivery adjustments and refined work in side sessions, the righty had found increased control after giving up 13 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings across his previous three starts.
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On May 3, Bloss left a start against the Iowa Cubs in the fourth inning holding his right arm. The Blue Jays sent him for imaging on his throwing elbow and announced the UCL surgery more than a week later.
With Max Scherzer still working his way back from a thumb injury, the Blue Jays have had a hole in the rotation for most of the season. Easton Lucas, Yariel Rodríguez and José Ureña have all chipped in starts out of the fifth rotation spot. In Sunday's 9-1 win in Seattle, Ureña and Eric Lauer combined for 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball.
'I think the number five (spot) will kind of be in flux a little bit,' Schneider said.
The patchwork rotation spot has worked, so far, but Bloss represented a rare upside option that could've filled the slot permanently if needed.
Bloss was pushed rapidly to the big leagues with the Astros, throwing just 80 1/3 minor-league innings before his MLB debut last year. Not 12 months after Houston selected him in the third round of the 2023 draft, Bloss was starting MLB games for an injured Astros rotation.
The Blue Jays elected to start Bloss in Triple A this year, slowing the righty's rapid rise to extend his development time in the minors. The right-hander now has months of recovery and rehab ahead before he can return to a mound and force his way back into the Blue Jays' big-league plans.
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