(Photo: Vancouver Canadians/Adam Macko on Instagram)

By Christian Oldale

Toronto Blue Jays prospect Adam Macko ready to make MLB impact in 2025

Feb 5, 2025 | 3:28 PM

As the Major League Baseball season gets closer to opening day, 2025 is looking to be a very important year for a Canadian top prospect.

Adam Macko, a left-handed pitcher, was drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners, and was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays on November 16, 2022 with fellow pitcher Erik Swanson in exchange for outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.

Macko has had quite a journey to become an MLB prospect, as he was born in Bratislava, Slovakia before moving to Ireland, and then moving again to Stony Plain, Alberta in his teenage years.

The 24-year-old told Lethbridge News Now it was a lot to deal with for him and his family, but he is grateful for the support that his parents always gave him along the way.

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When it came time for high school baseball, Macko came down to Southern Alberta, enrolling in the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball, where he eventually graduated in 2019, and was taken in the MLB draft.

Macko says the time at Vauxhall both helped develop his skills to become the prospect he is, and created a sense of camaraderie with his teammates that he will never forget.

Macko has another familiar face from the Vauxhall Baseball Academy with him at spring training, as his old teammate Damiano Palmegiani is a fellow Blue Jays Prospect who graduated a year before Macko.

Heading into the 2025 MLB season, Macko is looking forward to a big year of progress for himself, as he looks to make his MLB debut.

His confidence has been matched by his projections as a major league prospect as well. TSN listed Macko as the #13 prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays system on January 31, and also listed him as the #11 Canadian prospect across the MLB. TSN and the MLB website both project Macko to reach the majors in the 2025 season.

Macko adds that he feels ready to establish himself as a regular on the Blue Jays pitching staff after working through a busy year in 2024.

In the 2024 season, Macko played in three different levels in the Blue Jays farm system. He started three games at Single-A, 16 at Double-A and one at Triple-A.

In Double-A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Macko pitched to a 5-5 record with a 4.63 earned run average (ERA) in 81.1 innings. In those innings, Macko displayed his above-average strikeout skills, fanning 90 batters for an average of 10 strikeouts per nine innings.

MLB’s website touts Macko as a strong pitcher with a well-graded fastball that can reach in the high 90’s for velocity. They also praise his strong curveball and fast-improving slider as important pieces to his development as a pitcher.

Despite his strong physical attributes playing heavily into his status as a prospect, Macko says that his biggest strength as a player may be his mental game.

He adds that baseball is as much a mental game as a physical one, so if he can continue succeeding in both avenues, his game will continue to improve.

Among the players at Blue Jays camp in Florida ahead of the season is eight-time all-star and three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, who officially inked a one-year contract with the Blue Jays on February 4.

Macko says he grew up a big fan of superstar pitchers like Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Price when they were on the Detroit Tigers in the early 2010’s, and he is very excited for the opportunity to get on the field with him.

The Blue Jays will kick off their Spring Training games schedule on February 22, when they take on the New York Yankees. Spring training games will last a little over a month, before the team plays its home opener on March 27 against the Baltimore Orioles.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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