TORONTO \u2014 A year ago, Trey Yesavage might\u2019ve been sitting by a Florida pond on an off day, fishing with fellow Toronto Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer. He could\u2019ve been losing to Khal Stephen in Power Pros baseball on the Nintendo Wii. Maybe he was starting a Low-A game in front of a few hundred fans. He was, after all, far from the big leagues.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how fast things changed in 2025 for Yesavage, who made his 2026 debut Tuesday after a month lost to a shoulder impingement. The 22-year-old, who threw 5 1\/3 shutout innings against the Boston Red Sox, scaled four minor-league levels last year, made his big-league debut and became a World Series hero.<\/p>\n
Now, Yesavage and the Jays face the same challenge: For a team and player that had so much go right last season, how do they follow it up?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to guarantee this dude is going to be a 10-year big leaguer and multi-time All-Star and things like that,\u201d manager John Schneider said before the 3-0 victory. \u201cBut, I mean, I think he has the chance to be real good. Hopefully, this is just a good kick-start to his first full season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yesavage\u2019s first outing was as solid as season debuts come. He allowed just one extra-base hit on 74 pitches and struck out three. The whiff count was weirdly low, with just five swings-and-misses on the evening. But shutout innings are shutout innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I broke a lot of bats tonight,\u201d Yesavage said, \u201cso that\u2019s as good as a strikeout to me. And I was just out there feeling myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as he did months ago, the young starter pounded his hand into his glove as his outing ended. He walked off the mound to an ovation \u2014 loud applause for a Tuesday in April, but not the same decibel levels he earned last fall when he had a 2.84 ERA across three World Series outings, with 17 strikeouts in 12 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt the same,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cFirst time back, my Opening Day. Emotions were through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season, the bounces haven\u2019t fallen the Jays\u2019 way often. They haven\u2019t had too many nights like Tuesday, when October stars brought April wins. Yesavage, who reported a shoulder issue entering spring, was one of 12 players placed on the injured list in spring or the first month of the season. Those injuries sapped much of the depth from Toronto\u2019s rotation and key bats from the lineup. The Blue Jays are, even after Tuesday\u2019s win, 13-16.<\/p>\n
In Yesavage\u2019s case, his injury cost him a month. The righty didn\u2019t appear in a single spring training game, and he spent most of April working his way through rehab starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeels good to have him back here,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re missing so many guys, it kind of gives you a little bit of a shot of energy when you have one of your really, really big-time performers from last year back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jays aren\u2019t looking to replicate 2025, and neither is Yesavage. Both surely want this year to end a little differently. The Jays hope a slightly new mix, with Kazuma Okamoto, Dylan Cease and Tyler Rogers signed as free agents, will push them one win further. Yesavage, who made just three regular-season starts last year, will face new challenges.<\/p>\n
Though Yesavage pitched over 140 innings across the majors, minors and postseason last year, a full season at the big-league level is different. He has dealt with some early adversity, missing his first five starts to injury. It\u2019s the sort of bad bounce he basically never faced last year. Yesavage is no longer fighting for monthly promotions or learning a new clubhouse at every minor-league stop. The challenge, Schneider said, will be consistency.<\/p>\n
The Jays likely won\u2019t give Yesavage two-inning outings to keep him rested, as they did in the minors at points last year. They won\u2019t schedule him weeks off around the All-Star break to keep his innings down in anticipation of an October call-up. Now, especially with the state of Toronto\u2019s injured rotation, the Jays will call on Yesavage every fifth start. His job is to answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a major-league pitcher now for almost a full season,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cHow are you going to navigate that?\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be much easier for the Blue Jays to build on their 2025 when more key pieces return. Tuesday, Yesavage became the first injured bird to come back. He and the Blue Jays hope their encore can now begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the group we have here now is really good,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cThen, when guys come back, we can be excellent. Time will tell, but it\u2019s exciting to think about all the pieces that are going to be healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A year ago, Trey Yesavage might\u2019ve been sitting by a Florida pond on an off day,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82,507],"class_list":["post-636404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636404","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=636404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}