{"id":247664,"date":"2025-10-29T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/247664\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:30:08","slug":"take-it-from-the-top-torontos-trey-yesavage-uses-unusually-high-arm-angle-to-his-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/247664\/","title":{"rendered":"Take it from the top: Toronto’s Trey Yesavage uses unusually high arm angle to his advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Trey Yesavage<\/a> rocks back to deliver a pitch and his arm whips down from behind his head as his body tilts to the left, the highest arm slot of any right-handed pitcher this postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure some people think that would hurt to go all the way up there,\u201d Toronto’s 22-year-old rookie said. \u201cEveryone thinks it\u2019s unique, which it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesavage starts Game 5 of the World Series<\/a> for the Blue Jays<\/a> on Wednesday night in his fifth postseason outing after just three career regular-season starts. He allowed two runs over four innings in the opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, lacking the explosive fastball that dominated the New York Yankees<\/a> for 5 1\/3 hitless innings in the AL Division Series.<\/p>\n

His 65-degree arm angle was exceeded in the postseason only by Alex Vesia<\/a> at 67. A 29-year-old Dodgers left-hander, Vesia is missing the World Series because of a personal matter.<\/p>\n

Yesavage’s arm slot caused a release point 7.09 feet above the field, according to MLB<\/a> Statcast, the second-highest among starting pitchers with at least 200 regular-season pitches behind Justin Verlander’s 7.1.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that has to do with mobility and being younger,\u201d said 37-year-old Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen<\/a>. \u201cYou just hope that they can find a way to stay healthy and mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesavage started the season at Class A Dunedin and kept getting promoted. Pitching coach Pete Walker watched him only briefly during spring training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a slot you would necessarily teach. It doesn\u2019t seem to be the most natural slot,\u201d Walker said. \u201cLook at Verlander, you look at him and other pitchers over the years, but it just works for them. And once they get a feel for it, it’s not changing.”<\/p>\n

Over his seven starts, Yesavage has thrown 43.5% fastballs averaging 94.4 mph, 29.6% sliders averaging 88.5 mph and 26.9% splitters averaging 83.8 mph. <\/p>\n

His fastball averages 11.4 inch downward movement with gravity, his slider 30 and his splitter 31.9.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything plays off each other,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cEverything looks like a heater out of the hand, and then it could be a heater, slider or splitter. It\u2019s just a three-sided coin flip.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Yesavage won his postseason debut against the Yankees, he struggled in a 10-2 loss to Seattle in Game 2 of the Championship Series, allowing five runs in four innings, then won Game 6 by giving up two runs over 5 2\/3 innings. <\/p>\n

Yesavage didn’t get a decision in the World Series opener, leaving after four innings with the score tied 2-2 in a game Toronto went on to win 11-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m not able to execute the fastball efficiently, that\u2019s when my off-speed stuff starts to disappear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Players get ready to face Yesavage when he’s on the road by hitting against the Trajekt machine that can mimic his pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just another wrench that happens in baseball,\u201d said the Dodgers’ Max Muncy<\/a>, who in the opener against Yesavage singled on an up slider and struck out on a splitter than spun well wide of the strike zone. \u201cEvery day you\u2019re going to face someone who has something funky about them and for him it\u2019s his release height. You try to watch the game, you try to see what he\u2019s doing to other players and you try to communicate in the dugout.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Trey Yesavage rocks back to deliver a pitch and his arm whips down from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-247664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}