Ominous Blue Jays update on top prospect is the last thing fans want to hear

The Toronto Blue Jays might not be elite offensively, but boy, can they pitch. Even with Kevin Gausman struggling and Alek Manoah on the injured, the Jays still have guys like Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, and Yusei Kikuchi capable of carrying them. And there's more in the pipeline.

Toronto's top prospect happens to be one of the best pitching prospects in all of baseball, Ricky Tiedemann. The 21-year-old isn't only considered the No. 26 prospect in baseball but he's regarded as the best left-handed pitching prospect by MLB Pipeline. They have him as the fifth-best pitching prospect overall, only behind Paul Skenes, Jackson Jobe, Cade Horton, and Andrew Painter.

All of that praise has come despite a relatively small workload considering he was drafted in 2021. The reason why he has been limited has to do with injuries. He has suffered yet another one, and according to the latest report, it might be a brutal one.

Latest Ricky Tiedemann update is the last thing Blue Jays fans want to hear

According to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, Tiedemann underwent an MRI on Thursday after experiencing left elbow discomfort. Those results have not been revealed yet. Yikes.

An elbow injury is the last thing you want to hear for any pitcher. That means anything from a long stint on the IL to Tommy John Surgery is on the table. Tiedemann could be looking at missing over a year if he has to go that route, which would be a travesty.

The southpaw struggled in his three minor league starts this season for Triple-A Buffalo, allowing five runs in his eight innings of work (5.63 ERA) with nine walks given up. Still, he did strike out ten batters as he has continued to show that he can blow hitters away at alarming rates. He has fanned 14.4 batters per nine in his minor-league career, which is just absurd.

The problem with Tiedemann specifically is that the injuries continue to rack up. He missed time this spring due to a hamstring injury. That isn't super concerning, but it's an injury. Last season he had stints on the IL due to shoulder and bicep injuries. So he's had three separate arm injuries in the last two seasons. There's a chance that this latest one could be a huge one.

Injuries are why he has made just 36 starts and thrown 130.2 innings in his minor league career. He has proven he's at the very least close to MLB-ready when healthy, but he just hasn't been healthy enough in recent seasons to make it. He was even "in the mix" to make an opening series start according to Blue Jays manager John Schneider, before being sent down.

What makes this injury so unfortunate is Tiedemann might've been next in line. Yariel Rodriguez replaced the struggling Bowden Francis who was in Manoah's spot but what if Rodriguez struggles in his next time out? Might the Jays have turned to Tiedemann then? The hope here is that he avoided the worst, but until we find out for sure, it's hard to not be concerned.