The Blue Jays are selling right-hander Trey Yesavage to the majors, in response to a report from Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Yesavage is predicted to be energetic on the MLB roster for Monday’s sport towards the Rays in Tampa.
Yesavage, 22, was chosen twentieth total in final 12 months’s draft by Toronto. Seen by most draft prospect analysis providers as a top-15 expertise in his class on the time, he earned some top-100 prospect consideration this previous offseason regardless of not having made his MLB debut but due to a dominant 40.4% strikeout fee a 2.03 ERA in 15 begins for East Carolina final 12 months. Yesavage started his season on the Single-A degree and was promoted three separate occasions all year long. He made simply 4 begins for Excessive-A Vancouver earlier than he was promoted to Double-A, and regardless of a 4.50 ERA in 30 innings at that degree 38.0% strikeout fee was sufficient to persuade Blue Jays brass to advertise him to Triple-A final month.
Since then, he’s pitched to a 3.63 ERA in 17 1/3 innings of labor whereas putting out 36.1% of his opponents. That’s a powerful sufficient determine that the Blue Jays determined to scratch Yesavage from his scheduled begin with Buffalo tomorrow and name him as much as the majors, although it shouldn’t be taken to imply Yesavage is totally with out flaws. The teenager has walked 10.5% of his opponents this 12 months, together with 15.3% of his opponents at Triple-A. These struggles along with his command have usually been made up for by his spectacular stuff, headlined by a fastball that sits 94-95 to associate with a splitter and a slider.
Whereas the Blue Jays are nonetheless laborious at work keeping off the Yankees (who sit simply two video games again of Toronto within the NL East), they’re kind of assured of a spot within the postseason at this level. The membership has a veteran rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber, Chris Bassitt, and Jose Berrios as issues stand. Yesavage could be very unlikely to bump anybody from that group from the postseason rotation. It’s at the very least believable the Jays may use Yesavage in spot begins over the season’s closing weeks to assist them line up their ultimate postseason rotation for a possible Wild Card sequence, by the Jays have an actual shot at a bye by way of the Wild Card spherical and would probably profit from seeing what Yesavage can do out of the bullpen.
Toronto’s bullpen has been flagging in latest weeks. Nearer Jeff Hoffman has an ERA close to 5.00, and deadline acquisition Louie Varland hasn’t taken to Canada very nicely regardless of his success in Minnesota earlier this 12 months. With the late innings wanting like a serious query mark for the Jays headed into the postseason, attempting Yesavage out of the bullpen and seeing if he can use his spectacular stuff to dominate main league hitters in brief bursts may end result within the Jays having one other energy arm for his or her reduction corps to lean on in October if the experiment goes nicely.
All that discuss of October might sound complicated, provided that the league’s guidelines state {that a} participant will not be on a membership’s postseason roster if not on the 40-man roster come September 1. There are methods round that, nonetheless, and one such loophole that will permit Yesavage to make a postseason roster this 12 months is that golf equipment are allowed to exchange gamers who’re eligible to be activated off the injured listing however not but wholesome sufficient to return, as long as the alternative was energetic within the group previous to September 1. Yesavage meets these circumstances, and the Jays have loads of gamers who he may very well be thought of a alternative for, similar to Yimi Garcia.
Yesavage’s September call-up signifies that he’ll get at the very least a little bit of main league service time this 12 months, however we’ve long gone the time the place he can be in peril of shedding rookie eligibility for the 2026 marketing campaign. Toronto might want to create area on their 40-man roster in an effort to formally name Yesavage as much as the majors on Monday by designating somebody for project.
