Why the Blue Jays are so high on top prospect Arjun Nimmala: 'He's got a bright future'

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He is still 19 years old and thus years away from being considered a potential solution for the Blue Jays ongoing offensive woes.

But even with that delayed flight plan for the franchise’s No. 1-rated prospect to soar in the big leagues, it’s near impossible not to get excited about the accelerated development of Arjun Nimmala.

The teenage phenom remains the brightest light in the Jays system — and it may not even be close.

Settling in nicely in his first move up the organizational ladder with the Vancouver Canadians, Nimmala certainly has thrived in his first pro exposure north of the border. He has rocked six home runs through his first 22 games, more than any player at any level in the Toronto organization, including the Blue Jays.

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It’s little consolation for the immediate travails of the big club, but the 20th-overall pick in the 2023 MLB draft has done nothing but impress since a brief reset shortly after debuting at the lowest level a year ago.

“The biggest thing for me with Arjun is the adjustment he made,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins said recently. “I don’t see that too often, when someone struggles and then makes a significant adjustment. Was comfortable pulling him out of competition to do so and came right back into the fold.”

It was then that the benefits of the Jays player development complex in Dunedin became centre stage for an incredibly talented and bright young prospect to find his way back on an upward trajectory in relatively short order. And a reset session at the facility a year ago not only helped fix Nimmala’s technical struggles, but allowed the Jays to gain further insight into his ability beyond the obvious bat-to-ball skills.

After his first 29 games with the Dunedin Blue Jays in 2024, Nimmala was batting a meagre .167 with an arresting 43 strikeouts.

Rather than let him work through those struggles during games, they placed the teenager on the development list and sent him to the complex where he made adjustments and recalibrated.

Upon his return, Nimmala was a different player and he has never looked back.

Through his first 24 games with the Canadians this year, Nimmala is hitting .283 with six homers, six doubles and 13 RBI. That seamless transition to the next level of the minors is just the latest step by the young shortstop.

So what makes him so impressive?

“It’s his cognitive ability,” Atkins said. “The intellect and his ability to use his brain to impact his baseball skills are the things that stand out to me.”

His work has been so impressive that it must be tempting to further hasten Nimmala’s progress. But he’s listed as the youngest player in the Northwest League, a further testament to what Nimmala has accomplished thus far.

It’s possible that he progresses faster than the average position player, but it also is clear that the Jays won’t rush him to make any of it happen.

That said, the maturity Nimmala has shown since being drafted is just another of the qualities that have impressed his employers.

“Very anecdotal and very subjective, but I’ve met a lot of first-round picks in my career and there’s a pretty traditional meeting between a GM and a first-round pick,” Atkins said. “They come in for their physical, there’s a little bit of media around them and there’s a lot of spotlight on them.

“And I’m now 30 years in, I’ve seen at least 30 of them, and he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen in just handling that situation with a level of maturity and intellectual ability.

“He’s got a bright future.”

Beyond what he has done through the two lowest levels of the minors — as encouragingly eye-catching as it has been — the team has given Nimmala a taste of the big-league environment during spring training.

In his 10 at-bats over six Grapefruit League games this past spring, Nimmala had a pair of hits — a home run and a double.

More important than the results, however, was the way Nimmala handled his immersion in that environment was impressive.

“You saw it in spring training, where nothing ever sped up on him,” Atkins said. “So to see that on that stage when Bo (Bichette) and Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.) and (manager John Schneider) are watching, that’s encouraging.”

And in the eyes of some, surely tantalizing for a player still three levels away from the big-league team that statistically has one of the worst offences in the major leagues.