Toronto Blue Jays Trade Acquisition Dominates Old Team in Spring Outing on Monday

The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros 8-3 on Monday afternoon as part of Grapefruit League play.

The Jays put up seven runs in their final three at-bats to fuel the offense, but it was the pitching of top prospect Jake Bloss which also turned some heads.

You can see the highlight of one of his strikeouts here, but in all, Bloss tossed three scoreless innings while striking out five.

Ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the organization by MLB Pipeline, Bloss was acquired last season in the trade deadline deal that sent Yusei Kikuchi to those very same Astros. The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of Houston back in the 2023 draft out of Georgetown.

He made his major league debut last season for Houston, going 0-1 with a 6.94 ERA. He struck out 11 batters in 11.2 innings. In the minors, he was 4-6 with a 3.18 ERA. He made 21 starts.

He won't start the season in the Jays rotation because they have a full group with Jose Berrios, Max Scherzer, Bowden Francis, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. Yariel Rodriguez is also in the mix to start games if needed, though Bloss won't be far behind.

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Bloss is ready to be part of the big league rotation on many rosters in baseball and likely finds his way there with the Blue Jays in 2025, whether that be via injuries ahead of him or through his own doing. Where this really gets exciting for Bloss is in ‘26 and ‘27, as the Blue Jays’ veteran starters likely depart and the organization works to reset its rotation. Bloss can be a central piece of that down the road but should be able to help right away.