This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson¡¯s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Blue Jays have some decisions to make. Sometimes, that¡¯s a good thing.?

When Spring Training opened nine months ago, the Blue Jays barely had a competition to speak of.?Otto Lopez?vs.?Nathan Lukes?for the final roster spot was as close as it got, so the stakes weren¡¯t exactly high. Next spring will be different.?

Needs at third base, left field, second base and the first base/designated hitter spot mean that multiple free-agent and trade additions are coming, but the Blue Jays finally have a wave of homegrown talent ready to compete for jobs. Prospects will always break your heart, but good organizations develop prospects in bulk to create these exact scenarios, where there¡¯s enough competition to consistently produce one who really ¡°pops.¡±?

These competitions will be crowded, including?Davis Schneider?coming off his breakout 2023 season and?Ernie Clement, who deserves a bigger part of this conversation than he¡¯s gotten. Then, we come to the?Top 30 prospects:

LHP Ricky Tiedemann (No. 1 prospect)
Fresh off being named Pitcher of the Year in the Arizona Fall League, Tiedemann salvaged what he could from a season where shoulder and biceps issues limited him to just 44 innings in the regular season. Tiedemann will be one of the biggest stories in camp -- again -- and in the likely case he starts the year in Triple-A, it¡¯s no longer about waiting on development. Tiedemann will be up when the Blue Jays think he makes them a better ball club, period.

Keep Tiedemann¡¯s workload in mind. Measuring that by innings alone doesn¡¯t work, but regardless, Tiedemann isn¡¯t going to throw 200 in 2024. This leaves the door open to shorter starts or ¡°bulk¡± outings as they manage this through the season. Nate Pearson is a lesson on how unpredictable elite pitching prospects can be, but Tiedemann¡¯s talent makes it easy to dream.

INF Orelvis Martinez (No. 2)
Martinez is the ultimate ¡°prospect.¡± He could hit 40 home runs for the Blue Jays one day. He could also strike out 40 times in his first 100 at-bats in the big leagues. He¡¯s the classic case of ¡°if it all comes together ¡­¡± because his power is special. Remember, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. compared him to ¡°a young Hanley Ramirez.¡±

Martinez is playing more second base down in the Dominican Winter League, which matters. That¡¯s likeliest to be his long-term position, though he can handle third base. His assignment out of camp? Go to Triple-A and take one more step forward. If the Blue Jays want to swing big on the trade market, though, Martinez is a name to watch.

3B/OF Addison Barger (No. 5)
In February, with Matt Chapman entering his free-agent year, I was asked who the Blue Jays¡¯ starting third baseman would be in 2024. I said Barger, and in Spring Training, he backed that up.

The rest of the season didn¡¯t go Barger¡¯s way, as an elbow injury limited him to 94 games across three levels, in which he batted .246 with a .745 OPS. As the season went on, he also started to see far more time in right field, where his huge arm plays well. There¡¯s some Brett Lawrie energy to Barger¡¯s game, which fans will love. For now, Barger needs a strong camp to force his way into a competition for a job.

INF Leo Jimenez (No. 6)
Jimenez lives under the radar, but the slick-fielding infielder already has a spot on the 40-man roster and hit .287 with an .808 OPS in Double-A last season before a late promotion to Triple-A cooled his bat. Still just 22, he has plenty of development ahead, but his 40-man spot means the clock is ticking. At the Trade Deadline, I highlighted Jimenez as a trade candidate, which hasn¡¯t changed.

OF Alan Roden (No. 7)
Roden is the player not being discussed enough. The 2022 third-rounder hit .317 with a whopping .430 on-base percentage between High-A and Double-A in 2023. He¡¯s the exact type of hitter the Blue Jays are trying to develop to complement power bats and could be a factor by midseason. Roden needs to be on your (very) short list of players to watch in February.

1B Spencer Horwitz (No. 16)
Horwitz, like Roden, is an on-base machine, posting a .450 OBP in Triple-A Buffalo last season. His big league stints showed flashes of that and this staff likes Horwitz -- a lot -- so the opportunities will continue. Toronto¡¯s offseason moves impact Horwitz as much as anyone on this list, given how many ways those 1B/DH at-bats could disappear, but he has a path to a semi-regular role.

1B/3B Damiano Palmegiani?(No. 18)
You can call him this year¡¯s Davis Schneider. No pressure, right?

The 2021 14th-rounder is, just like Schneider, a prospect who has slugged his way onto top prospect lists and demanded more attention. He¡¯s coming off a fine showing in the AFL, too, where he played 17 of his 22 games at third base. Palmegiani is a better defender than he¡¯s gotten credit for and is slowly becoming a dark horse in this third-base puzzle.