Johnny King ranks as Blue Jays Nation’s fifth-best prospect in 2025 mid-season update

Johnny King is the latest high school drafted pitcher selected after the first round to break out with the Toronto Blue Jays.

This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual mid-season prospect list, where we’ll take a look at the 50 best prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. I’ll look at the player’s stats, what other publications have to say, as well as my own observations of the players.

Ranking as our 20th-best prospect in the pre-season update, the left-handed pitcher had an incredible season to jump to our fifth-best prospect. If you missed who ranked as our sixth-best prospect, you can read about Juan Sanchez here.

Getting to know Johnny King…

Position: Starting pitcher

Throws: Left

Born: July 26, 2006

Acquired: Third round, 2024 MLB Draft

Previous ranking: 20th (2025 pre-season)

In the third round of the 2024 MLB Draft, the Blue Jays selected King, who stands at 6’3”, 210 lbs. The left-handed pitcher signed to an over-slot bonus of $1.248 million. Like many young pitchers selected by the Blue Jays, King didn’t make his debut until the following season.

To begin the 2025 season, King started with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays. In 24 innings pitched, the 19-year-old started five of seven games and had an incredible 1.13 ERA and 1.53 FIP, with a 41.8 K% and 7.1 BB%.

King’s potential didn’t slow down after his promotion to the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, authoring a 3.35 ERA and 4.23 FIP in 37.2 innings pitched, or 10 starts in 11 appearances. While his K% was still impressive at 38.1%, King struggled with control as his BB% jumped to 17.9%. With the D-Jays, King’s fastball had a 36.2 whiff%, while his curveball had an incredible 61.6 whiff%.

In MLB Pipeline’s mid-season update, the 19-year-old ranked as the Blue Jays’fifth-best prospect. Most impressive is his fastball that sits around 93.5 mph, but touches 96 mph. The fastball is graded at 60, while his curveball is graded above-average at 55. That said, King’s changeup lags far behind those two pitches, and he’s shown to have some control issues in Single-A.

King will likely begin the 2026 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays, and developing a third pitch is the key to this off-season. If all goes well, a promotion to High-A Vancouver Canadians is in the cards.