Blue Jays' Arjun Nimmala: Working to keep on weight
Rotowire
Nimmala has added 15 pounds from his playing weight at the end of last season, Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reports.
While it's good to see the 20-year-old bulk up, that weight mostly just replaces the mass Nimmala lost over the course of the 2025 campaign. That weight loss may have contributed to a summer slump that saw his offensive numbers crater -- he held an .842 OPS with 11 homers through his first 61 games for High-A Vancouver, but Nimmala managed just a .522 OPS with two homers over his final 59 contests. "I need to keep prepared and keep doing things the right way," the shortstop prospect said Tuesday. "That's something I look forward to taking into this year. Forget about what's going on on the field, but it's more like putting yourself in a good situation to play well." Encouragingly, Nimmala did maintain an improved strikeout rate all season, and if his more frequent contact turns into more frequent hard contact, he could be headed for a breakout in 2026.
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Blue Jays' Arjun Nimmala: Summer-long slump for Vancouver
Rotowire
Nimmala is slashing .224/.313/.381 with 13 home runs and 17 steals in 120 games for High-A Vancouver.
Nimmala has a .566 OPS over his last 79 games after starting the year with a .917 OPS in his first 41 games. While he will finish the year as a below-average hitter (91 wRC+) in the Northwest League, Nimmala is the youngest qualified player in the league and fourth-youngest qualified hitter at High-A, so he should be graded on a bit of a curve. The power-hitting shortstop finished 2024 on fire (.888 OPS over his final 55 games) but it's the opposite trend to close 2025. That said, he cut his strikeout rate from 30.7 percent in 2024 to 21.4 percent in 2025 while keeping his walk rate steady at 10 percent. Nimmala's stock is down after this summer-long slump, but he still has a chance to be Toronto's shortstop of the future. The only other players 19 and under to hit 13-plus home runs with double-digit steals and a strikeout rate under 25 percent this season are Konnor Griffin, Eduardo Quintero, Edward Florentino, Sebastian Walcott and Colt Emerson.
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Blue Jays' Arjun Nimmala: Flashing power for Vancouver
Rotowire
Nimmala went 2-for-5 with a solo home run and two additional runs scored for High-A Vancouver on Sunday.
It was the 19-year-old's third straight game leaving the yard. Nimmala has taken a big step forward at the plate to begin the campaign, slashing .289/.349/.539 through 18 games and reducing his strikeout rate from 31.8 percent in 2024 to 21.7 percent through his first 83 plate appearances this season. Despite his age, the Blue Jays will have to consider a promotion to Double-A for Nimmala at some point this summer if he continues to thrive against Northwest League pitchers.
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Blue Jays' Arjun Nimmala: Sent to FCL
Rotowire
Single-A Dunedin activated Nimmala from its development list Monday and assigned him to the rookie-level Florida Complex League.
Dunedin deactivated Nimmala on May 14 after the 18-year-old shortstop had slashed a lowly .167/.280/.306 over 125 plate appearances. He's presumably spent the last few weeks working on his swing at the Blue Jays' spring training complex and now appears ready to test himself in a game setting again. If Nimmala is able to quickly find success in the Complex League, he could soon be headed back to Dunedin.
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Blue Jays' Arjun Nimmala: Moved to development list
Rotowire
Single-A Dunedin transferred Nimmala to the development list Tuesday.
The 20th overall pick in last year's draft was overmatched at Single-A, as he was hitting .167 with 43 strikeouts in 29 games. Nimmala won't turn 19 until after the season, so he's got plenty of time to figure things out. The Jays could have assigned him to the Florida Complex League, but they presumably want to work on some things with him before he gets back into structured gameplay.
