The Toronto Blue Jays like their left-handed starting pitchers.
One of the top left-handed pitchers in the 2025 MLB draft that could be available for the Blue Jays is Florida State’s Jamie Arnold. He’s one of a few left-handed collegiate pitchers in the top ten, along with Kade Anderson and Liam Doyle, the latter you can read about here.
The 2025 draft is a little over a week away, and there are plenty of interesting players who should be available for the Blue Jays. In the last draft profile, we looked at the top high school pitcher, Seth Hernandez.
Jamie Arnold’s bio
Jamie Arnold is a 21-year-old left-handed pitcher who attended Florida State University for the past three seasons. Standing at 6’1”, 180 lbs, he is ranked as MLB Pipeline’s fourth-best prospect.
The Blue Jays have selected 73 collegiate players from the state of Florida. The most recent was Colby Martin in the 16th round of last draft, but he was recently traded to the Miami Marlins for Robinson Pina. Jimmy Burnette was selected in the 18th round out of St. Leo, but he was released last month.
CJ Van Eyk was the last player the Blue Jays selected out of Florida State, as he was their second-round pick in the shortened 2020 draft. He’s one of seven players the Jays have drafted out of Florida State, joining Cobi Johnson (2018), Luke Tucker (2006), Eddie Cannon (2004), Ken Robinson (1991), David Tollison (1990), and Ed Schneider (1981).
Although the Blue Jays have only selected a handful of college players from Florida, they’ve selected their fair share of prep players from the state, including Johnny King, Troy Guthrie, Arjun Nimmala, Landen Maroudis, and Brandon Barriera. All of those players were selected in the last three drafts.
Jamie Arnold’s stats
Arnold started his collegiate career after going undrafted in the 2022 draft. His first season saw him post a 6.34 ERA and a 5.20 FIP in 44 innings pitched, making eight starts in his 24 appearances. He improved dramatically in his sophomore season, posting a 2.98 ERA and a 2.19 FIP in 105.2 innings pitched, starting 18 of the 19 games he appeared in. Moreover, his K% jumped from 23.7% to 35.4%, while his BB% dropped from 13% to 5.8%.
In his draft year, Arnold finished with the same ERA of 2.98, along with a 2.95 FIP in 84.2 innings pitched. All 15 of the left-handed pitcher’s appearances were starts, and he finished the season with a 33.9 K% and a 7.7 BB%.
Jamie Arnold’s tools
According to his MLB Pipeline bio, before playing for Florida State College, Arnold’s fastball sat in the high-80s and low-90s, but has jumped all the way to the mid-90s while topping out at 97 mph. Moreover, there is life to his fastball.
His best secondary pitch is his mid-80s slider that generates a ton of whiffs. Arnold’s third pitch is a changeup that lags behind the other two pitches, but is still considered average. More importantly, Arnold is a strike thrower with above-average control.
Jamie Arnold’s grades
As always, here are Arnold’s grades according to MLB Pipeline.
| Tools | Grade |
| Fastball | 60 |
| Slider | 65 |
| Changeup | 50 |
| Control | 55 |
Is Jamie Arnold a fit for the Blue Jays?
Arnold is a polished pitcher who throws strikes and has two different plus pitches. It’s hard not to see him as a fit for the Blue Jays, even if a handful of their top pitching prospects are in the upper minors. Like they say, you can never have too many pitchers.
The bigger question is, will he even be available when the Jays select eighth overall on July 13? In MLB Pipeline’s latest mock draft, they have Arnold going fifth overall to the St. Louis Cardinals. ESPN’s latest mock draft has Arnold going even earlier, as they project he’ll go third overall to the Seattle Mariners.
It seems unlikely Arnold will be available when the Jays pick, but if he is, he’ll more than likely be the best player available at that point, and they’d be missing out on a good opportunity to potentially find their next ace.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.