Under the Radar Blue Jays prospect: Chris McElvain

One of the Toronto Blue Jays‘ pitching prospects was acquired in a trade near the end of Spring Training.

On March 20, 2024, the Blue Jays traded the recently designated for assignment utility infielder Santiago Espinal to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Chris McElvain, the prospect we’ll look at in this week’s edition of Under the Radar prospects. If you missed last week’s article, we looked at Pat Gallagher.

McElvain, a right-handed pitcher, was drafted by the Reds in the eighth round of the 2022 draft from Vanderbilt University. He didn’t make his debut until the following season, finishing the year with a 3.75 ERA and 4.41 FIP in 96 innings pitched between Single-A and High-A.

After the trade to the Blue Jays, McElvain played exclusively with the High-A Vancouver Canadians, posting a 4.56 ERA and 3.73 FIP in 49.1 innings pitched. Moreover, he struck out 24.7% of batters while walking just 8.3% of the batters he faced. Nine of the 25 runs he gave up in 2024 came in one outing. Sadly, McElvain received Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2024, missing the rest of the season.

McElvain made his return to action in early May 2025 on a rehab assignment in the lower minors. The right-handed pitcher returned to the Canadians in June, posting a 3.42 ERA and 3.77 FIP in 23.2 innings pitched. His K% increased to 23.3% in Vancouver (25.3% for the season), while he’s walked just 4.9% of batters.

As for his stuff, McElvain features a four-pitch mix, featuring a low-90s fastball, a high-80s cutter, a slider, a splitter, and a changeup. He recently started throwing a splitter again, a pitch that was once in his repertoire. It’s only a matter of time before he adds a promotion to Double-A, as he’s posted good results in his tenure with the Canadians this season.

McElvain is part of the Steve Pearce trade tree, as the Jays sent Pearce to the Boston Red Sox for Espinal. That trade worked out for both teams, but you can read about that here.