Jason Leblebijian has heard it all when it comes to the pronunciation of his last name.

“I’ve heard Lebchinski,” the Blue Jays prospect said with a laugh ahead of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons’ home opener on Thursday. “Apparently I’m Polish. I don’t know how that happened — that’s the worst I’ve had. It used to make me mad at first, obviously. Now I just enjoy it. I eat it up when they mess it up, I really do.”

The dream is to have his name called at a big-league venue — ideally pronounced properly (it’s leb-le-BEE-jee-in), but the 26-year-old utilityman from Arlington Heights, Ill., born to Armenian parents, would probably take it either way.

After a strong 2017 campaign — his first with the Bisons, including an appearance in the all-star game — and a 2018 spring training in which he saw the fifth-most at-bats of any Blue Jay as a non-roster invitee, Leblebijian is at least in the conversation when it comes to breaking into the major leagues.

The way Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro sees it, the 25th-round pick from 2012 might have already exceeded expectations.

Leblebijian played five positions last year and hit from every spot in the batting order except leadoff. He was voted the Bisons’ most inspirational player by his teammates, and that work ethic and versatility has the organization cheering for him.

“He doesn’t have a strong positional fit,” Shapiro said at a fan event last week. “He’s not a guy that profiles with big power or big speed or huge athleticism. He’s going to be a guy that has to perform his way to the big leagues … but he’s a guy that, man, I want to see him get there. I really do. There are guys you pull for … he’s going to get there, man. It’ll be something worth celebrating.”

Leblebijian has done some celebrating on the field with the Bisons. He’s off to a hot start at the plate — 7-for-18 with two home runs, five RBIs and a pair of stolen bases — and says he isn’t thinking any further ahead than his next game.

After spending his first two seasons in the minors bouncing among three teams each year, he knows how unpredictable the process can be. Players may think they have the general manager’s decision-making figured out, but then the team goes in another direction.

“Early in my career … I was always trying to play GM and figure out moves, and I’ve learned that it just does nothing but affect you,” he said. “So I think I learned a couple of years ago that you go every day just trying to get better and get ready for the game.

“At the end of the day, the number that you put up, or whatever you do, is going to ultimately force the hand. I’m lucky that I learned it at an early age, so it doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s not something I really focus on too much. I just show up to the park and really just focus on winning the ballgame that night. Whatever happens, happens from there.”

Still, it doesn’t hurt to have the boss’s backing.

“It’s definitely humbling to hear that,” he said. “You try not to get too ahead of yourself, but when you know that you’re in the talks it definitely motivates me even more to get better every day.”

Leblebijian points to the consistency of playing all of last season in Buffalo as a positive. His only other year with one baseball home was 2014, with the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts.

But that familiarity also poses a challenge for Leblebijian coming into his second season with the Bisons. The opposition knows him well, too.

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“You see how pitchers adjust to you,” he said, “so that’s the biggest thing I learned from playing here, is now you’ve got to make that adjustment back.

“You have to understand how they’re trying to attack you, you have to understand how they’re trying to get you out, how they’re trying to position you on the field. That’s the biggest thing I want to continue going forward, just really having a plan of how they’re going to come at me. It might not be what I’m looking for. It might be more or less, what are they going to throw me for me to hit?”