lue Jays fans are appalled by ESPN's take on Trey Yesavage

Just like MLB Pipeline, ESPN has recently updated their prospect rankings. ESPN stops at 50 though, while MLB Pipeline does a top 100. Regardless, there is often a lot of overlap within at least the top 20 - mostly because the industry as a whole has a general consensus on how those players are viewed, and what their ceilings or expectations are. However, it's not always identical and it appears as if ESPN has made a comical, glaring mistake on their end in the last round of updates.

Toronto Blue Jays' starting pitcher Trey Yesavage cracked the top five, coming in at No. 5 overall on MLB Pipeline a few weeks ago. On ESPN's list, not only is Yesavage not even a top ten player, the reasons for him falling out of that group just don't add up.

Yesavage was ranked 13th, moving up one spot from their previous rankings at No. 14 overall. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel wrote, "Yesavage isn't exciting and will graduate in the next week or two, but there's tremendous value in a steady midrotation starter who shows flashes of front-line performance -- like he did last October."

Not exciting? Midrotation? The only thing "mid" here is that assessment of Yesavage who has absolutely dominated since being called up to the big leagues in September of 2025, and wasn't just a passenger on the Blue Jays push to the playoffs, he was an active contributor and one of the reasons they were able to win the division, the pennant and were one win away from their third World Series title.

Yesavage has been better than advertised to everyone, except for ESPN

Since his debut in September of 2025, Yesavage has put up some of the best numbers in the league. He has the 13th best K/9 rate in baseball (10.30), the sixth best ERA (1.83) and the second best xERA (2.51). His 1.6 fWAR is the 14th highest of all pitchers in the game and he's the only guy in the top 25 of that list who has less than 40 innings pitched. To accumulate those kinds of numbers in the limited time he's been in the big leagues at just 22-years-old should just scream excitement.

Blue Jays fans who read the rankings when they came out also found the assessment to be perplexing. One user on X said, "Flashes of front line performance” and it’s 12 punchouts in the World Series against the team that has won back to back championships." While another added, "Mid rotation starter with WS strikeout record.. They just mad he dominated the darling Dodgers and Yankees."

It's really hard to justify the position that a guy who climbed every level of minor league ball to make it to the majors in one year isn't exciting. Let alone have that same guy start Game 3 of the World Series that same year and break a World Series record for rookie pitchers. He also just shut down the New York Yankees for six innings in the Bronx in his latest outing striking out eight hitters, including Aaron Judge three times.

At this point, we're not really sure what else Yesavage has to do to be considered "exciting" by ESPN's standards, but if he stays on this path, Toronto fans will be just fine with the outcomes.

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