{"id":834710,"date":"2026-07-29T23:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834710\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T23:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:36:16","slug":"yesavage-cements-role-in-blue-jays-rotation-plans-in-win-vs-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834710\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesavage cements role in Blue Jays’ rotation plans in win vs. Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 Regardless of what the front office does between now and the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Trey Yesavage<\/a>\u2019s importance to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2019 big picture in both now and into the future is only going to grow.<\/p>\n

Alongside ace Dylan Cease<\/a>, the 23-year-old is positioned as a cornerstone for a rotation in flux, with Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer pending free agents who are candidates to be dealt. Should the Blue Jays indeed subtract, there will be a short-term need for Yesavage to simply cover innings while developing over the final two months of the season, no matter how it plays out, while next year, the club will need him to keep posting while also tapping further into the upside he flashed last October to contend again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, the way he pitched into the seventh inning for just the fourth time this season, while allowing only one run in Wednesday\u2019s 5-2 victory over the Washington Nationals, is particularly encouraging. In managing to both contain the most productive offence in the majors while simultaneously being more efficient with his 97 pitches, he locked in on a couple of areas the Blue Jays are prioritizing with the righty phenom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all saw all the swing and miss last year and every team is a little bit different, but it\u2019s him understanding that his stuff is good enough to be in the zone and let them swing at it and put it in play,\u201d said manager John Schneider. \u201cNot chasing strikeouts and not getting into deep counts when you do get ahead and saying, OK, here’s my stuff, go ahead and hit it because this stuff is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only damage against Yesavage came in the fourth, when Jacob Young looped a splitter into left field for a double that plated a C.J. Abrams leadoff walk, although Daulton Varsho<\/a> stole a likely home run from Brady House in the first with a leaping catch at the centre-field wall. Otherwise, he scattered three hits and three over 6.2 innings while striking out four, getting 10 whiffs while largely suppressing hard contact despite his velocity being a tick down.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiked a lot of early contact, kept the pitch count low and the defensive plays behind me,\u201d said Yesavage, who struck out nine but only went four innings in his previous outing at Boston. Getting soft contact this time was \u201cjust how things play out. Last time I was filling up the zone, just getting deep into counts and then this start they were swinging early. Helped me out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some opportunistic offence made sure his effort didn\u2019t go to waste, as the Blue Jays (50-59) tied the game 1-1 in the sixth on an RBI double from Ernie Clement<\/a>, took the lead in the seventh on Varsho\u2019s slow roller up the third base line and extended in the eighth, getting a pair on Kazuma Okamoto<\/a>\u2019s blooper into short right centre and another on George Springer\u2019s RBI single.<\/p>\n

Tyler Rogers<\/a> recorded the final out of the seventh, but after a long layoff got into trouble in the eighth, giving up an RBI single to Luis Garcia Jr. With two on and none out, Louis Varland<\/a> took over and extinguished that rally and then handled the ninth for his 23rd\u00a0save.<\/p>\n

“I needed this and the guys needed this,\u201d\u00a0said Yesavage. “Take this win into the off-day, get to relax and then ready to play on Friday.”<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays\u2019 rotation assets heading into 2027 beyond Yesavage and Cease form an unclear puzzle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Returning from season-ending injuries and expected to be ready for spring training are Cody Ponce<\/a> (knee) and Bowden Francis (elbow), with Jose Berrios, who underwent elbow reconstruction surgery on May 20, a potential factor later in the season.<\/p>\n

Beyond them is Spencer Miles, the Rule 5 pick who\u2019s spent this season mostly in a bulk role and is a candidate to be stretched out, along with other length options like Chad Dallas, recalled Wednesday after C.J. Van Eyk went 3.1 innings on Tuesday, and Lazaro Estrada.<\/p>\n

Jake Bloss, out with a teres major injury likely to end his season, along with double-A righties Nolan Perry and Gage Stanifer are all prospects that can bubble up into the mix, too. Cole Carlon, their first-round pick earlier this month, and Johnny King are a couple of arms to watch, as well.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a decent base to work from, but the Blue Jays will need to bolster that group externally, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more traditional starters you can have, the better,\u201d said manager John Schneider. \u201cYou can never have enough. Obviously we’ve learned that this year. \u2026 I think we always do a good job of making sure we have some options.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 Regardless of what the front office does between now and the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Trey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-834710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834710","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=834710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}