A year ago, Trey Yesavage sat in the Toronto Blue Jays home dugout for the first time. He walked through the Rogers Centre weight room and big-league clubhouse, admiring the facilities he one day hoped to use. The young pitcher grinned as cameras flanked him in the dugout, looking around in awe.
Yesavage is now one call away from walking back into those big-league facilities and home dugout. The Jays’ top pitching prospect will be promoted to Triple-A Buffalo this week, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Monday. With Toronto (69-50) fighting for playoff seeding in the final weeks of the 2025 season, Yesavage is now a call-up away from contributing to Toronto’s pennant chase.
The 2024 first-round pick entered the year second in Keith Law’s ranking of Blue Jays prospects. At the end of May, he ranked as the sixth-best right-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball and the 47th-overall prospect. Going into the 2024 MLB Draft, Law noted Yesavage was one of the most major-league-ready arms in the class.
Starting his first professional season in Low-A Dunedin, Yesavage has now earned three promotions in five months, pushing to the top of Toronto’s farm. Utilizing a funky arm slot and a four-pitch mix — including a plus fastball, slider and splitter — the 22-year-old struck out 134 batters in his first 80 2/3 minor-league innings. He owns the third-most strikeouts in all of minor league baseball.
Yesavage experienced a slight command dip when promoted to Double A in June, walking seven batters in his first 6 2/3 innings, but walked just four over the six outings that followed. He took three weeks off from game action around the 2025 All-Star break. The pause slowed the righty’s rising workload, which should allow him to pitch through the end of the season without reaching an innings cap, league sources said.
Earlier this month, Blue Jays manager John Schneider mentioned Yesavage, alongside lefty Adam Macko, as a potential big-league pitching option down the stretch.
“I think Yesavage could (factor in),” Schneider said. “I know he’s not on the 40-man, but I think he could.”
With five healthy starters in the big-league rotation and Shane Bieber and Alek Manoah working back from Tommy John surgeries at the top of Toronto’s system, the Jays’ starting pitching depth appears to be in a good place. However, Yesavage came out of the bullpen for the first time in his professional career last week, throwing five innings of relief with nine strikeouts at New Hampshire.
That flexibility could position Yesavage, now on the cusp of his big-league debut, to fill any role for Toronto in the final weeks of the season.
(Photo: Mike Janes / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)