The 22-year-old Trey Yesavage accumulated more MLB experience in the playoffs than he did in the regular season, after his mid-September call up.Luke Hales/Getty Images
After the Toronto Blue Jays’ painful loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series, Trey Yesavage retreated to his family’s farm in Boyertown, Penn. It is the 22-year-old pitcher’s happy place, where he explored the woods as he grew up, played paintball with his brothers and learned to hunt for deer and waterfowl.
“I tried to disappear a little bit,” Yesavage said last month in a return to Toronto. “It was mostly about getting away and being by myself. What happened was heartbreaking for everybody in our clubhouse.”
Toronto came within one out of defeating Los Angeles, the defending World Series champion. It was a bitter end to an exhilarating season.
Little was expected of the Blue Jays, who finished last in the American League East the year before. Even less was expected from Yesavage, a 2024 first-round draft pick out of East Carolina University who wasn’t invited to a major league training camp.
The Blue Jays went on to win the American League championship, knocked the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners out of the postseason and went to the World Series for only the third time in club history and first time since 1993.
Blue Jays’ pitcher Trey Yesavage’s rise to baseball fame evokes memories of Ken Dryden
They lost Game 7 to the Dodgers in the 11th inning when Alejandro Kirk grounded into a double play with a runner on third base. The final score was 5-4; Toronto left 14 runners on base.
“We fell a little short,” Yesavage said. “We’ll be better for it this season. We just have to get back to work. I know everyone is excited.”
The Blue Jays return to the salt mines on Tuesday when pitchers and catchers report for spring training in Dunedin, Fla. Plots, subplots and questions abound.
Can Toronto win without all-star infielder Bo Bichette, who accepted a free-agent offer from the New York Mets? His roots go back a decade with the Jays’ organization, he’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s best friend and an exceptional hitter.
Yesavage reacts after an inning-ending double play during the fourth inning of Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
Can Dylan Cease, who has been among the top four candidates for the Cy Young Award in two of the last four years, return to form after a subpar 2025 campaign? The Blue Jays doled out US$210-million over seven years for him through free agency. If he is sharp, he could become the team’s top starter, making Kevin Gausman a tough No. 2. And is Shane Bieber healthy enough to slot into the third starter role? He looked good at times in 2025 and is still recovering from elbow surgery in April of 2024.
Can free agent Kazuma Okamoto take over at third base and produce like a slugger as he has in Japan? And what of Anthony Santander?
Questions swirl around Yesavage as well. Mainly, is he for real? He pitched at all four minor-league levels in 2025 before getting called up to the Blue Jays on Sept. 14.
The following night in Tampa, he struck out nine Rays batters in five innings, a franchise record for a pitcher making his major league debut.
Over the next six weeks Yesavage kept setting records and became a stalwart of the pitching staff. He made six appearances during the playoffs and set an MLB mark for most strikeouts for a rookie with 39 in 27.2 innings.
In his best outing, he struck out a dozen Dodgers without a walk in seven innings in Los Angeles. No rookie had ever struck out 12 batters without a walk in World Series history.
As Yesavage steamrolled through the postseason, his parents, Dave and Cheryl, received a lot of screen time during broadcasts. They’ve been a major part of his baseball journey, so were often shown celebrating his performances.
Yesavage’s unique pitching style flummoxed even Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani, during their seven-game run in the World Series.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
Trey was busy with pitching on the game’s biggest stage and stuff like that and never saw them.
“I’ve never seen them in the stands,” Yesavage said. “I’ve looked for them but they are hard to find in a packed house.”
He is 6-foot-4 and unique for many reasons. He has a very unusual delivery through which he throws 95-mile-per-hour pitches from high above his head. Opposing batters have described the experience as looking like a ball is barrelling down at them from the top of CN Tower.
If it’s a split-finger fastball, it dives and tails off at the end. Shohei Ohtani was seen flailing around at it at least once.
Yesavage returned to Toronto on Jan. 28 as an ambassador for a new nationwide Rogers initiative called Screen Break, which is designed to educate students on how to use their phones more wisely and more safely.
Rogers, which owns the team, has pledged $50 million to the program over five years.
Yesavage was thrust into baseball’s biggest and brightest spotlight through the team’s playoff run. He rarely looked like a freshly called up player in those enormous moments.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
In a gathering at the Mattamy Athletic Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University he told the crowd that he has had a cell phone since he was nine years old and said he now sets time limits for three or four of his favourite apps.
“You have to put the phone down sometimes,” he said. “Take the time to realize phones don’t help you in all facets.”
Perhaps it was Yesavage’s relative youth but the crowd seemed to be mostly inspired by his newfound celebrity.
More than 500 students from grade school to university applauded and cheered him. There were more people there than in Jupiter, Fla. when he made his professional debut last spring playing single-A. He could have easily found his parents there.
Yesavage said it has been hectic coming off a long World Series run but he has fit quite a bit in. Twelve days after the Game 7 loss, he made a bent-on-knee proposal at sunset to his girlfriend, Taylor Frick.
“It was way more nerve-wracking than any game I have ever played,” he quipped. It must been convincing; Taylor said yes. They met in high school in Pottstown, Penn., about a 10-minute drive from his family’s farm.
“Words could never fully describe the emotions I’ve experienced watching you over the past year,” Taylor wrote on Instagram hours after Game 7. “Although you have changed uniforms more times than I can count, your heart and drive has never altered. You have stayed humble, kind, and true to the person you were the day I met you.”
Yesavage, seen here being feted by Jays’ fans in their ALDS battle with the New York Yankees, captivated the fan base with his poise and performance in the team’s Fall run.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Yesavage said he has also kept busy learning how to drive with kilometres in mind and now knows the lyrics of O Canada.
He anticipates that spring training will be more enjoyable for him this time. For sure, he won’t be banished to the back fields at Toronto’s training facility.
“It’s going to be very different,” he said. “I’m going to be on the big-league side, which I am quite excited about.”
He played in so few big league games last season that he will be eligible for the American League’s rookie of the year award.
That would certainly indicate that he is real – and very good. In six weeks or so last fall he faced 560 batters at five levels and struck out 215. He made US$57,204 as a late call-up from the minors, on top of his signing bonus after being drafted; surely a huge raise is forthcoming.
“I’m moving on to spring training,” Yesavage said. “I was tested to the highest level last season and I hope that helps me. My No. 1 goal is to stay healthy. My next is to enjoy a full major league season.”