Blue Jays pitching prospect Gage Stanifer is displaying frontline starter tendencies

In his third professional season in the Blue Jays farm system, Stanifer has taken off. In 102 innings pitched, he’s put together a 2.56 ERA/2.30 FIP/2.44 SIERA while striking out 36.6% of all hitters he’s faced and generating a solid amount of groundballs (44%) across two levels A/A+. His elite pitch mix has firmly put him in the Trey Yesavage and Johnny King tier of pitching prospects in the system, and I would be shocked if the latter two didn’t find themselves on some top 100 lists as we head towards the minor league offseason. Stanifer wields a four-pitch mix which includes a sinker, slider, changeup, and 4-seam fastball. All four of his offerings grade as above average by stuff+. His 4-seamer is comfortably a plus pitch, potentially double-plus. It sits in the mid-90s, producing 17.3″ of IVB, 2308 RPM, and is unbelievably flat as evidenced by its -4.3 VAA. This gives the illusion that the pitch is “rising,” which allows it to play incredibly well at the top of the strike zone, as evidenced by the high 40% whiff rate. It’s also the pitch Stanifer uses the least, which is intriguing. His sinker has also produced phenomenal results, and it’s more of an east-west pitch, while the 4-seamer is more north-south. There’s room to incorporate both in his usage. Stanifer’s dominant 2025 has put him firmly on the radar of not only the Blue Jays’ brass but also fans.