Ricky Tiedemann is a 23-year-old, left-handed pitcher. The Jays picked him in the third round of the 2021 draft. He was added to the 40-man roster on November 18th, 2025. He’ll be using his first option year this year.
As you know, he had Tommy John surgery in August of 2024, missing all of the 2025 season. And, just to add to our worries, he’s been on the shelf this spring, since February 24, because of elbow soreness. The team said that an MRI came back clean. They also said that he could be shut down for but I haven’t seen anything suggesting he is throwing again.
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I’m ok with them taking things slowly. It isn’t all that unusual for some soreness when coming back from Tommy John.
Until the Tommy John, he was progressing very nicely. In 2024 he was #1 on our prospect list. Tom M wrote:
2023 was derailed by injuries, including shoulder soreness that delayed his debut by a couple of weeks and a bicep strain that knocked him out from early May through late July. In the 44 innings he managed, mostly at AA, he was as comically dominant as ever, posting a 44% strikeout rate and a 1.68 FIP. He got 18 more innings of work in the Arizona Fall League.
Tiedemann has the prototype power pitcher’s frame at 6’4” and a broad shouldered 220lbs. He throws from the far first base side of the rubber with a slingy delivery and low, wide arm slot that makes the ball feel like it’s coming straight at righties and from behind lefties’ ears. That release point complements the big horizontal movement on all three of his pitches. The fastball sits 94-96 and touches 98 without much vertical rise but with huge arm side run. His best secondary has been a changeup with depth and run, although it backed up a bit in 2023. His slider is a big sweeper, again with huge horizontal break (so much that hitters are sometimes able to lay off it because it looks like a ball inside before breaking all the way across the zone and being called a ball outside), which he has great feel to land in the zone for strikes. It’s three pitches that can all be plus, although he hasn’t regularly had all three sharp at the same time yet. Tiedemann’s command never quite locked in in 2023 with all the disruptions, but in spite of a somewhat unorthodox delivery it could wind up being average or a little above with time.
Unfortunately, the ‘derailed by injuries’ has been a continuing thing.
When he has pitched, he’s been terrific. In 41 minor league starts, 140 innings, he has 226 strikeouts and 68 walks.
He is only 23. There is lots of time for him to right the ship. There has been several pitchers who had injuries troubles when they were young and still went on to have a great career (I can almost hear people saying back that there have been lot of pitchers who had injury troubles when they were young and never got their careers back on track. Both are true).
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If his arm can’t stand up to the stress of being a start, a left-handed reliever who can throw 98 mph isn’t a bad thing to have on your pitching staff.
MLB Pipeline still lists him as our number 5 prospect. They say:
Prior to the injury, Tiedemann had come into camp at 245 pounds and was bulked up closer to 255 by mid-season, but now he’s about 15 pounds above his listed weight of 220, a much more natural and athletic size for a pitcher. This has helped him become more fluid on the mound again. While 32 starts and 200 innings may never be in the cards for Tiedemann, that’s just fine. He’ll build up in a bulk role this season when he’s ready to roll, and while all of this comes with a “but” related to his health, he still has as much raw talent as any player in the Blue Jays’ system.
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