Blue Jays lay out plan for this pitcher's path back to the big leagues

Slowly but surely, Trey Yesavage is working his way back to the big leagues. The 22-year-old right hander has been working his way back from a shoulder impingement that landed him on the Injured List at the on-set of the 2026 season. After his impressive postseason performance in which he pitched to a 3.58 ERA in six games, and struck out 39 hitters in 27.2 innings, the expectation was that Yesavage would be a key part of the Blue Jays rotation in 2026.

He can still be that X-factor for Toronto, it will just take a little longer than expected to get him going. But the hope is, after his second rehab start, that he isn't too much farther off.

Yesavage getting closer to a big league return

Yesavage suited up for the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays on Thursday and went 2.2 innings pitched allowing four runs on four hits, but had six strikeouts and one walk. The four runs don't look great, but they all came off singles in the first inning. They best take away though came from those six K's, and the fact that Yesavage had not just good command, but good velocity as well throughout the outing.

He averaged 95 mph on his fastball, topping out at 96.1 mph, while his slider sat at 90 mph and his splitter was clocked at 85 mph. 24 of his pitches were thrown in the strike zone, while batters swung at 20 of his pitches and only three classified as hard hit balls. He produced 10 swing-and-misses, meaning 50% of the swings the opponents took, they completely whiffed on.

All of those are great signs for Yesavage and the Blue Jays should be happy with his progress - but there are still some hurdles to clear before he makes the jump back to the top tier league. Those hurdles include getting up to 70 pitches, something he'll try to do in his next outing, which will come on either Tuesday or Wednesday according to Blue Jays beat reporter for MLB.com Keegan Matheson.

If Yesavage can get over that threshold, with no ill-effects, he could be on the first plane heading up north. What that means for the rest of the rotation still remains to be seen. Right now the Blue Jays have Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease and Eric Lauer as their only locks. Max Scherzer left his last start after two innings to deal with his forearm tendinitis - but says he's going to make his next start. Meantime, Patrick Corbin was signed on an emergency one-year, $1 million deal and after one outing in the minors, he was called up to make his Blue Jays debut against the Minnesota Twins on Friday (Apr. 10).

Regardless of how things shake out between now and then, Yesavage will be a welcomed addition back into the rotation.