AdAdam Macko is a 25-year-old, left-handed pitcher. The Jays added him to the 40-man roster in November 2023, protecting him from the Rule 5 draft. He was born in Bratislava, Slovakia (he grew up in Ireland). A quick Baseball Reference search shows that the Jays have never had a player born in Slovakia. The most famous MLB players from Slovakia? Elmer Valo played 20 seasons, mostly for the Phillies, in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, who played the outfield and had a 28.7 career bWAR, and pitcher Jack, who played 23 seasons, with 8 teams, between 1909 and 1933, missing a couple of seasons due to World War One, who had a 59.7 bWAR with 247 wins.
Adam’s family came to Alberta to go to the Vauxhall Baseball Academy. Apparently, Vauxhall is the potato capital of Canada and is a 2.5-hour drive from Calgary, but I’m almost sure I’ve never been there.
Adam came to us in the Teoscar Hernandez trade (with Erik Swanson). He was number 8 on our top prospect list last year (he’ll fall off the list this year, as he’s 25). Tom M wrote:
He pitches with a smooth left handed delivery that he repeats well in spite of a longish arm action. His fastball is a four seamer between 91 and 95mph that has average carry and plus arm side run. His primary breaking ball (and in some outings most thrown pitch) is a slider that averages 80mph but on which he can vary the speed and shape from a cutter-ish 82 to a curve-ish 78. He also has a big curve in the low 70s with easy plus depth and an 81mph change-up with major arm side fade and some depth. The velocity’s fringy but everything moves and he has feel for locating the fastball and slider especially that help them play up a little. The change might have the best movement profile but his feel to land it varies, and the curve is so big hitters tend to lay off it, so it might be more of a strike stealing weapon than a swing and miss pitch. His command is average when he’s on, but it can come and go a bit.
Right now, Macko checks all the boxes to fit as a back end starter. He’s put up decent numbers through AA, and his repertoire is good enough and deep enough to hold up in that role even if he lacks the true put-away pitch necessary to be a top three starter in a good rotation. The only thing left to do is prove that he can handle a full season’s starting workload by getting over 100 innings in a season. He’ll get his chance starting in Buffalo.
Keith Law has him 20th on his top 20 Jays prospect list this year:
Macko missed the start of the 2025 season after knee surgery, returning to Triple A in early June to be sort of mediocre as a starter, then moved to the bullpen and saw mostly better results. He works with four pitches, with the slider and curveball probably 55s and his fastball 92-94 as a starter. His command and control have always lagged behind his stuff. He gained almost a full mile per hour on the fastball when he moved to relief and was in the zone much more often, and hitters chased more of his pitches out of the zone, including the fastball. He should make his MLB debut this year, which would make him the first Slovakian-born big leaguer since 1961 and the first to grow up there in MLB history.
He’s in his last option year, which adds a little pressure to the season.
Unfortunately, he had a meniscus tear in spring training last year and later had a forearm strain, costing him a couple of months of the season. He ended up pitching in 18 games for the Bisons, including 10 starts, with a 5.20 ERA over 64 innings, 36 walks, and 65 strikeouts.
He throws a four-seam fastball averaging 94 mph, a slider, a slow curve, and a changeup.
Macko is in a tough spot; there are a number of pitchers battling for the ‘first to be called up if a starter goes down’ spot. Ricky Tiedemann, Lazaro Estrada, Jake Bloss, and some non-roster spring invitees will get a good look this spring. But then the team might be looking at Adam as a reliever now. A good spring would help him out.
If you want some video:
Steamer thinks he’ll play in 14 games, 2 starts, 21 innings with a 4.39 ERA.