Top prospect Nimmala grateful for early struggles

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.

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The moment you drift away from Field 1 and Field 2, where the Blue Jays hammer away each morning in preparation for the 2025 season, you start to hear the same question.

¡°Have you seen Nimmala?¡±

An organization desperate to develop another star has turned its hope to 19-year-old Arjun Nimmala, the young man who carries himself with the poise and certainty of the big leaguers on the big fields. On those back fields, the gaps in talent between Minor League players are easier to see, even at a glance. Nimmala, as he steps in to take batting practice in front of a few teammates and a few members of the grounds crew, is impossible to miss.

He has put on 15 pounds since ending last season around 180, determined to keep that weight on through the season this time. The Blue Jays¡¯ new No. 1 prospect has been challenged, stumbled, fallen down and learned from it. That¡¯s where the club¡¯s belief in Nimmala begins. Baseball is littered with gifted young players who buckle beneath their first failure, especially when it comes later in their development arc. Nimmala, in 2024, got that out of the way.

¡°Nobody wants to struggle, but it¡¯s a valuable lesson for me coming so early,¡± Nimmala said. ¡°There are a lot of notable Major Leaguers who struggled early in their career. To mention one, Derek Jeter. Jeter struggled early in his first season.

¡°A lot of good players struggle. It doesn¡¯t matter where, but they¡¯re able to get out of it. Mine was early. I¡¯m glad to have gotten out of it, and I¡¯ll carry those things I learned all the way up to Toronto.¡±

You can draw a line in Nimmala¡¯s 2024 season rather easily. Through 29 games with Single-A Dunedin, he was batting .167 with a .586 OPS and 43 strikeouts. The Blue Jays put him on their development list, which was a decision the player development group nailed, and they brought Nimmala back across town to the complex for a few weeks, where he could focus heavily on some specific swing adjustments.

It worked. Back in Dunedin in late June, Nimmala put up an .895 OPS with 13 home runs over the final 53 games. There he was, the young shortstop spilling over with offensive talent that¡¯s rare for the position.

¡°The growth, mentally, was huge,¡± Nimmala said. ¡°Coming here to begin the year last year, it was almost like there had never been a struggling point. Maybe here and there, but nothing major. Then, we were 30 games into the season and I¡¯m not performing the best, not helping the team. I¡¯ve never been a guy that gets in my head a lot, but it¡¯s definitely ¡­ ¡®Oh, I¡¯m not performing.¡¯

¡°Going back to the development list allowed me to make some tweaks. Half of it was having more trust in my ability and half of it was fixing some things in my swing.¡±

There¡¯s a comfort and confidence that comes with this. You¡¯ll get a glimpse of it in the Spring Breakout game against the Twins on Saturday, which Nimmala is headlining, but you¡¯ve already gotten a couple of looks in camp as the Blue Jays reward Nimmala with game reps.

Now, the next time Nimmala grinds through an 0-for-12 stretch, he has something to look back to. He has a reference point that proves, yes, he can adjust and shake these slumps off.

It¡¯s easy for a top prospect to talk about the brilliance of his own game. Whether they¡¯ve come through the high school and NCAA ranks or signed as an international free agent, these young players have typically been the best player on their team all along. What¡¯s impressive about Nimmala is the balance he strikes between the unwavering confidence in his own game and the frank assessments of where he can improve.

¡°I became less of a feel hitter,¡± Nimmala said, thinking of 2024. ¡°Personally, I like to feel things. I like to feel my back hip, feel my hands, feel this, feel that. Coming here, I did a bad job of that. I thought, ¡®I¡¯m just going to go out and play,¡¯ which is still something to definitely do, but I was feeling wrong. It¡¯s something I didn¡¯t really pick up. I made some tweaks.¡±

So far, it¡¯s working. There are miles to go for a 19-year-old, but Nimmala is the type of prospect the Blue Jays have been looking for, and he has already gotten the hard part out of the way.