TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays will have more flexibility with the pitching prospect Jake Bloss next season after the right-hander qualified for a fourth option.
The 25-year-old, acquired from the Houston Astros as part of the return for Yusei Kikuchi during the 2024 trade deadline, had his third and final option used this year, which was mostly spent on the injured list.
But players whose first three options are exhausted before they reach five full seasons in the minors and majors are eligible for a fourth, and that’s the case for Bloss, a third-round pick in 2023.
Out of option players can’t be sent to the minors without first passing through waivers, so the Blue Jays are no longer at risk of losing him and subtracting from their pitching depth if he doesn’t break camp with the club. They can also move him back and forth up to five times without the risk of waivers.
Lefty reliever Brendon Little and outfielder Jonatan Clase, two 40-man roster players on the big-league bubble, will both be out of options next season, so the Blue Jays are just about out of runway with those assets. Righty Josh Wincowski, who is in the organization but not on the 40-man roster, is also out of options, so if his contract is selected at some point next year, he can’t be an up-and-down arm.
Bloss missed the first month of 2026 recovering from Tommy John surgery but worked his way up to triple-A Buffalo by mid-June, pitching to an 8.69 ERA in 19.2 innings over five starts.
He experienced a spike in velocity until a teres major strain sidelined him for the rest of the season, although he’s closing out the year with Mesa in the Arizona Fall League, posting an 8.44 ERA in 10.2 innings over five starts while earning selection to the Fall Stars game.
