Posted in

Blue Jays Nation’s 2026 Pre-Season Prospect Countdown – No. 2: Arjun Nimmala

by sports••0
Blue Jays Nation’s 2026 Pre-Season Prospect Countdown – No. 2: Arjun Nimmala

The Toronto Blue Jays’ best position player prospect is Arjun Nimmala.

This is Blue Jays Nation’s bi-annual prospect ranking, where we’ll look at the top 35 prospects in the system in the month of February. As always, I’ll look at the player’s stats, what other publications have to say, as well as my own observations of the players. If you missed the third-ranked prospect, you can read about JoJo Parker here.

Getting to know Arjun Nimmala…

Position: Shortstop

Bats: Right

Born: October 16th, 2005

Acquired: First round, 2023 MLB Draft

One area of strength for the last three seasons for the Jays has been their drafting. I’m still a defender of the 2022 draft, even if Brandon Barriera, Cade Doughty, and Tucker Toman (who had a better 2025 season) haven’t panned out. But their 2023, 2024, and 2025 drafts have been great, simply put. Picked 20th overall in the 2023 draft was shortstop Arjun Nimmala.

At the time for the draft, the 6’1”, 190 lbs shortstop was only 17, and he was one of the rare prep players the Jays have picked who actually made his debut after the draft. Over nine games with the Florida Complex League Jays in 2023, he slashed .200/.500/.320 with no home runs in 40 plate appearances.

Nimmala got off to a rocky start when he began the 2024 season with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays. Over the first month and a half, Nimmala slashed just .167/.280/.306 with three home runs in 125 plate appearances for a 74 wRC+. On May 14th, 2024, the Jays placed Nimmala on the development list, and the improvements were immediately noticeable.

From June 3rd until September 8th, Nimmala slashed .263/.346/.565 with 14 home runs in 266 plate appearances for a 150 wRC+. Before he was placed on the development list, his K% stood at 34.4%, but over the last four months, it dropped to 28.9 K%. With excellent power, there is swing and miss in Nimmala’s game.

Nimmala’s 2025 season was the polar opposite of the season before. Now in High-A as a 19-year-old, Nimmala slashed .289/.372/.528 with nine home runs in 207 plate appearances over his first two months. In terms of wRC+, he picked up right where he left off, as it stood at 145. More impressively, Nimmala’s K% dropped to 17.9% over this stretch.

The shortstop didn’t have a great end to his season in the summer months, slashing just .184/.277/.290 with four home runs in 336 plate appearances for a 59 wRC+. There are reasons for that, because for starters, The Athletic’s Keith Law reported that Nimmala was battling injuries last season. Additionally, the Northwest League has just five other teams, and it’s not common you see a 19-year-old in High-A.

There’s a strong chance that Nimmala begins the season repeating the High-A level, but with a good start to his season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him promoted to Double-A early into the summer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *