Blue Jays Option Tiedemann to Buffalo Amid Left Elbow Soreness

Ricky Tiedemann was building something real this spring. He had adjusted his slider grip to reduce elbow strain, looked noticeably sharper in his second live batting practice session than his first, and was finally starting to resemble the pitcher who struck out 117 batters with a 2.17 ERA across 78 2/3 innings in 2022. Then a side session ended it.

The Toronto Blue Jays optioned the 23-year-old left-hander to Triple-A Buffalo on March 8, a move that came after Tiedemann felt soreness in his left elbow during a recent bullpen session. Manager John Schneider told reporters that Tiedemann underwent an MRI, which did not reveal any structural damage, and would back off throwing for approximately a week. The roster move also sent right-hander Jake Bloss to Buffalo, while right-handers Tanner Andrews, Nate Garkow, and Chay Yeager were reassigned to minor-league camp.

The clean MRI is the headline that matters most, but the context is impossible to ignore. Tiedemann underwent Tommy John surgery in mid-summer 2024 and missed the entire 2025 season. He has totaled just 140 professional innings since Toronto selected him in the third round of the 2021 draft. In his final eight starts before the surgery in 2024, spread across Toronto's complex league affiliate, low-A Dunedin, and Triple-A Buffalo, he threw only 17 1/3 innings and posted a 5.19 ERA with a 19.3 percent walk rate across those levels, a number that reflected a pitcher working through something before the elbow finally gave way.

The 2022 and 2023 versions of Tiedemann were different. After his breakout across three levels in 2022, he made 15 starts the following year, mostly in Double-A New Hampshire, finishing with one start in Buffalo and a 44.1 percent strikeout rate. Those numbers earned him his place on the 40-man roster, which Toronto protected in November, shielding him from the Rule 5 Draft. MLB Pipeline currently ranks him the organization's fourth-best prospect.

None of that changes the arithmetic of his workload. With Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, and Trey Yesavage already occupying spots in Toronto's rotation, Tiedemann was never going to break camp with the big-league club. The plan was always to send him to Buffalo to accumulate innings and potentially contribute out of the Toronto bullpen later in the season. The Blue Jays have left the door cracked open for a relief role this year, and working in shorter stints would also help manage the workload limits that come with logging zero innings in 2025.

That path remains intact, contingent on what the elbow allows. The MRI is clean and Schneider sounds optimistic, but ten days without throwing is a significant pause for a pitcher with this particular injury history. Same elbow, same calendar uncertainty. The talent has never been in question. Staying on the mound long enough to use it is the only variable that has ever separated Tiedemann from a rotation conversation in Toronto.