Former Toronto Blue Jays prospect Connor Cooke signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles after Tommy John surgery erased his 2025 season.
Entering 2024, Baseball America ranked Cooke the No. 10 prospect in the Blue Jays system. It will now be up to Baltimore to determine whether his strikeout stuff is still there after the surgery, and after five years in the minors.
After getting to Game 7 of the World Series in 2025, the Blue Jays finished at 79-83 and in last place in the American League East this season. The Orioles finished 79-82 and also watched the postseason from home. Cooke, a 26-year-old right-hander, reports to Triple-A Norfolk.
Toronto drafted him in the 10th round, No. 302 overall, in 2021 out of Louisiana-Lafayette, where he carried a 3.82 ERA across 125 innings. His last college season produced a 2.03 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 79 2/3 innings, according to Baseball America.
Cooke opened his sophomore year as the Louisiana-Lafayette closer, and a sharper changeup pushed him toward the rotation. Then the pandemic shut down the season before his first start.
"I was ready to go, for sure, but things happen," Cooke said, as quoted by Baseball America .
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In the spring of 2022, Cooke hit 98 mph during one bullpen and held 96-97 during another, and a new slider rounded out a four-pitch mix. "He's super athletic," Blue Jays farm director Joe Sclafani said, as quoted by Baseball America . Sclafani added that Cooke may be the most athletic member of Toronto's 2021 draft class.
Scouts called Cooke possibly the best pure reliever prospect Toronto owned entering 2024. The 2023 season built that case with 80 strikeouts against 19 walks in 44 1/3 innings across three levels, according to NBC Sports ' Matthew Pouliot . That year's work earned him an invitation to big-league camp.
Then the numbers went south. Cooke posted a 4.55 ERA and a 5.56 FIP over 31 2/3 innings with Triple-A Buffalo in 2024, according to Blue Jays Nation . He underwent Tommy John surgery in January 2025, and the procedure cost him the entire season.
Toronto released him March 25, one day before Opening Day.
"Cooke is probably the biggest surprise of the bunch," Blue Jays Nation wrote of that day's cuts.
At 26, Cooke is seen, according to analysts, as "less of a prospect and more of an interesting arm." The label fits a pitcher coming off elbow reconstruction whose last full season ended with a 4.55 ERA.
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Cooke did not wait for a call. He signed with the Lexington Legends of the independent Atlantic League and posted a 2.66 ERA in 23 2/3 innings, with 28 strikeouts.
Over four minor league seasons with Toronto, he collected 193 strikeouts in 138 innings and a 4.57 ERA. Control remained the weak spot, with a 9.6% walk rate in 2023.
Cooke profiles as a power reliever built on a fastball that has reached 98 mph and a slider that gives him a second swing-and-miss pitch. He is also reported to be able to dunk a basketball despite his 6-foot-1 frame, a marker of the athleticism Sclafani described.
The contract is a minor league deal, so no major league roster spot comes with it. It does bring a pitcher with strikeout history to a division rival of the team that cut him loose.
Whether the velocity and command returned after surgery is a question Norfolk will begin answering when the Triple-A season opens.
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This article was originally published on HEAVY
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