Jays' Rotations of the Future

Welp. Alas. Bitter dregs.

I can't imagine anything I can say about the utterly boring, predictable, tedious, news that the Dodgers have, again, added a star and they didn't even need to throw around big stinking piles of money to do so. It's crappy for the sport as a whole but I don't really know that there's anything for it. It's too early for my brain to reckon with "so what now?" type of speculation so let me go off on a different tangent. This was rattling around in my brain as a "counting sheep" type exercise last night.

Anyone who's follows the Baseball America annual Top Prospects lists knows that they do this little feature where they project a team's roster out several years based on who's in the system in the present. It's basically never particularly accurate because their are far too many variables to account for. But still, it's a tempting exercise, and what's on my mind is that - Sasaki's absence being what it is - there's a possibility that the Jays are not as bereft of SP options as the general narrative implies.

In terms of the current group, they control Jose Berrios for 2 more seasons, or 4 if he doesn't opt out (which I think there's a fair chance he won't). Kevin Gausman for 2 more, Chris Bassitt for 1, Alek Manoah and Yariel Rodriguez for 3 and Bowden Francis for six. If we assume no further additions (which seems unlikely but this is a thought exercise) then it is rational to think that the 2026 rotation looks like this:
Gausman
Berrios
Manoah
Francis
Rodriguez

But that's not the fascinating part. Here's the potential 2026 AAA rotation:
Jake Bloss - already had a full year here in '25
Ricky Tiedemann - coming back from TJ
Trey Yesavage - having barnstormed the others levels in '25
Adam Macko - also repeating the level
Kendry Rojas - newly arrived from AA (maybe)

That's basically all but one of the team's SP prospects in their Top 10 (depending on how you view Fernando Perez). At AA there will be Perez along with, likely, Khal Stephens.

So even if you - or the Jays - think Rodriguez would be better in the bullpen, there's multiple options to fill that spot. More to the point, you could do that AND lose Gausman and Berrios and (barring more injuries between now and then) have a choice of top prospects to step in. And three of them have been in or near the 100 Top Prospects list.

Now yes, it's not ideal to turn 2 or 3 spots in your rotation to rookies, but it's not necessarily an issue either, at least not like it would be if Lazaro Estrada (whom I like) was your best option,

I kinda like it when the up-and-coming players get a chance to have some run.