Well, this isn’t great news.
Toronto Blue Jays prospect Brandon Barriera left a Single-A game Saturday in pain after suffering some type of injury on the mound. It happened in the top of the second inning when he allowed a single, and he left the game after throwing just 21 pitches facing eight batters.
It’s unknown as of the time of writing what the injury is, but his reaction wasn’t great. He threw the ball onto the ground, immediately leaving the field. This isn’t great as Barriera also dealt with injuries last season, missing time with an elbow injury and a bicep injury.
Barriera was selected with the 23rd overall pick in the 2022 draft by the Blue Jays, and didn’t make his debut until the 2023 season. With the Florida Complex League Blue Jays, he didn’t allow a run in his two innings pitched, walking a batter while striking out two.
The left-handed pitcher mainly pitched with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, where he had a 4.42 ERA and a 3.26 FIP in 18.1 innings pitched, along with a 31.5 K% and an 11 BB%. In Friday’s game, the 20-year-old averaged 92.8 mph with the fastball and touched 96.9 mph with the heater. Barriera generated one whiff on four total swings with the fastball and six total swings on all three of his pitches.
Barriera is one of the more exciting prospects in the Blue Jays organization, as he ranked as MLB Pipeline’s fourth-best Blue Jays prospect, with grades of 55 for the fastball, slider, and changeup.
Hopefully, this injury doesn’t keep him out of the lineup for long as he only has about 23 innings under his belt in the professional game. While the injuries are a cause for concern, Barriera’s ceiling is still incredibly high. With any luck, this will be his last injury and his career can continue without any further setbacks.
As more information is available, this article will be updated.
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