Arjun Nimmala is heating up fast since the Blue Jays traded their No. 2 prospect away.

Since the deal, he's played 24 games with five home runs, 12 RBIs, and a .231 average, backed by a strong 128 wRC+.

Nimmala was the most surprising name Toronto moved at the deadline, a signal the club wasn't purely selling despite its narrow playoff odds at the time.

Toronto sent him to the Angels along with fellow minor-leaguers Eddie Micheletti Jr. and Angel Rivero in exchange for Jose Soriano.

He's landed with the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Angels' Double-A affiliate, and picked up right where his prospect pedigree suggested he could.

Two doubles and two walks came in just his second game with the Madison, Ala. club.

He hasn't slowed down since. Nimmala has four home runs in his last eight games, including an inside-the-park shot.

Why this trade carries real long-term risk for Toronto

Toronto hasn't often gotten burned trading away highly touted prospects. Simeon Woods Richardson, Austin Martin, Gunnar Hoglund, and Jordan Groshans have all failed to pan out elsewhere so far.

Nimmala's performance is bucking that trend early. He currently ranks No. 38 in MLB Pipeline's top 100, and this kind of stretch only strengthens that standing.

For a shortstop this young showing this much thump, the sample size is still small, but the underlying tools clearly haven't disappeared with the move.

Soriano has been a real asset for Toronto's rotation since arriving, giving this trade genuine value on both sides regardless of how Nimmala's career unfolds.

But if Nimmala keeps developing at this pace, this becomes the rare instance where Toronto's track record of avoiding prospect regret gets tested.

Whether he sustains this power surge over a full season, or this settles into a smaller hot stretch within a longer developmental path, is the question that will define how this trade eventually gets remembered.