Blue Jays sign pitching prospect Tomoya Kinjo to minor league deal

Kinjo most recently pitched for the Kōchi Fighting Dogs, a team in Japan’s Independent Leagues after finishing college. The 23-year-old never played in Nippon Professional Baseball, but he’s armed with an upper-90s fastball, with a sinker, curveball, and changeup.

Last season, Kinjo pitched 26.1 innings over 18 appearances for the Fighting Dogs, finishing the season with a 6.84 ERA. Despite the impressive velocity, Kinjo only struck out 18 of the 135 batters he faced for a 13.3 K%, while also walking 30 batters for a 22.2 BB%. He kept the ball in the park, though, giving up just one home run.

Kinjo mainly pitched as a reliever, starting just two of the 16 games he appeared in. The 23-year-old had several multi-inning relief appearances, coming out of the bullpen for two innings five times.

The Blue Jays have made an effort to scout players overseas in both Korea and Japan. Everyone knows of their pursuit of Shohei Ohtani in the 2023/24 off-season, but they were also one of the finalists to land Rōki Sasaki before he signed with the Dodgers. Last off-season, the Blue Jays agreed to terms with Kazuma Okamoto, their every day third baseman.

Toward the end of last season, they managed to sign Korean pitcher Seo-jun Moon with some of the leftover bonus pool money they acquired to take on Myles Straw’s contract. That extra bonus pool money was originally brought in as an attempt to land Sasaki.

Recently, the Blue Jays sent Leo Jiménez to the Miami Marlins for prospect Dub Gleed and $250,000 in IFA bonus pool money. It’s unclear how much of their bonus pool that they have left, but they’ve already signed players like Juan Caricote and Michael Mesa early into the 2026 period. Expect a few more of these types of signings as the year continues.

As for Kinjo, he’ll probably start somewhere in the lower minors, either in the Florida Complex League or Single-A if I had to guess.