Jake Bloss is the rare baseball prospect with a master's degree in finance as a fallback plan.
Bloss double majored in math and economics at Lafayette, then earned a master's degree in finance at Georgetown. While at Georgetown, he won Big East Pitcher of the Year, and the Astros drafted him in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft.
A year later, he was in Houston after a two-month rocket ride from High-A Asheville to the Space City. A little over a month after his MLB debut, the Astros traded him to Toronto.
Geographically, he went north, but his numbers have gone south. His stats are so ugly that coyotes are making movies about them.
Between 2024 and 2026, he has made 19 starts for Triple-A Buffalo, going 0-12 with a 7.31 ERA in 70.2 innings.
The primary culprit, though, has been injuries, which have led to inconsistency.
Since joining the Blue Jays, he has pitched just 91.1 innings.
Bloss, though, is not thinking about Plan B right now.
His only backup plan has been to get back up on a mound.
On Tuesday, Toronto's #11 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, did just that.
Toronto sent Bloss to the Arizona Fall League (AFL) primarily to get innings after being hurt for most of his time in the Blue Jays organization.
Injuries have robbed him of many opportunities over the past three seasons.
In his major league debut with Houston in June 2024, he felt something in his shoulder. An MRI showed inflammation but no structural damage. He was placed on the injured list.
Shortly after he returned from the IL, the Astros traded him to Toronto, along with Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner, in exchange for Yusei Kikuchi.
Bloss spent the rest of 2024 and early 2025 in Buffalo.
In May 2025, he left a start after feeling something "weird" in his elbow. This time, the MRI showed more than inflammation. He had a torn UCL and would undergo Tommy John surgery.
Bloss returned this May, but was placed on the IL on July 11 with a teres major injury.
On Tuesday, he took the hill for the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League. It was his first game action since July 11 with Buffalo.
He retired all six batters he faced, with his fastball topping out at 95.6 mph and averaging 94.6 mph.
That's good news for Blue Jays fans, because whatever the numbers say, Bloss has talent and has been to the show before. A healthy Bloss could have helped the Blue Jays' battered rotation in 2026, when 11 different starting pitchers spent time on the Injured List.
If the Blue Jays part ways with Shane Bieber as many expect, it could open the door for Bloss to compete for a starting rotation spot in 2027, or perhaps take on a bulk reliever role like Chad Dallas did at times this season.
Bloss is one of the few AFL players to have played in the Major Leagues. Although he hasn't played in the Majors with Toronto, he visited the city on a road trip with the Astros and fell in love with it.
Bloss pitching for the Astros, Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
When he heard he was being traded to the Blue Jays, he was excited about coming to Canada.
"The weather was unreal, and the stadium was super nice. It has a big-city feel; it's clean, and there is a lot to do."
For Bloss to return to Rogers Center, he will, first and foremost, need to stay healthy.
The downtime and time away from his teammates have been tough, especially recovering from Tommy John surgery.
"The rehab takes a long time," Bloss said. "And that was the year they made the World Series, which was super cool to see, but you want to be a part of it."
Jake Bloss, Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
Still, Bloss tried to make the most of the time.
"It's a long rehab, but you can take advantage of that time to come out better. It is a chance to get stronger and faster and to spend time working on your mechanics."
Despite the injuries, Bloss remains a top prospect, in part because of the promise he showed during a two-month ascent from High-A to the Majors between April and June of 2024.
He was called up directly from Double-A after posting a 1.61 ERA in 8 starts at Corpus Christi.
Bloss believes his analytical background helps him with the science of pitching, but sees it as a balancing act.
You can get obsessed with the metrics. Usually, a team will tell you what they want in terms of shape and how hard to throw it, then tweak your grip to get, say, less vertical movement. But you can get away from the old-timey aspect of just hitting spots. The analytics are great for making your stuff as nasty as possible, but you might be better off throwing a well-located (metrically) average changeup.
Pitching, like real estate, is location, location, location.
A good pitch in a bad neighborhood will still get walloped.
Those "old-timey" aspects of pitching, like location and disrupting hitters' timing, come with experience, though.
The Blue Jays hope Bloss gets that experience this fall in Arizona so he can start looking for real estate in Toronto next summer.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/bluejays/onsi as Jake Bloss's Arizona Fall League Debut Provides Reasons for Optimism .
