Blue Jays take talented college pitcher with first round pick in 2024 MLB Draft

With the 20th overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft the Toronto Blue Jays selected Trey Yesavage, a right-handed pitcher out of East Carolina University. Yesavage was rumoured to go in the 10-15 range and he ended up slipping down to the Jays at 20. This makes it two years in a row that the Jays have selected a player who had slipped down to their pick, with Arjun Nimmala being the example last year.
Yesavage is 20-years old and posted a 2.03 ERA with 145 strikeouts and just 32 walks across 93.1 innings this year. He finished with a career college ERA of 2.58 which is exceptional in a big time offensive environment.

In 2024 you can project a lot more about a pitcher by looking beyond the surface numbers. Yesavage stands at 6-foot-4, 225 lbs. and is quite maxed out frame wise. His primary pitch is his four-seam fastball which sits around 94 MPH with massive induced vertical break at 22.2 inches on average. He won't sustain that kind of ride with MLB balls but it's a testament to the unique nature of the pitch given his incredibly high arm slot. He got lots of chase and swing and miss on his fastball and does a good job commanding it especially given the release point.

Yesavage's main secondary pitch is a mid 80s cutter. He locates this pitch very well especially to his glove side and it returned a ridiculous near 60% whiff rate on the year. He also throws a splitter with good downward movement and plenty of velocity separation off his fastball. The different pitches don't stop there. Yesavage has thrown a slider, changeup, and curveball as well this year. He sports a very deep arsenal with good command (especially of the fastball and cutter).

All 6 of Yesavage's pitchings had stellar results this year. A testament to the strength of his arsenal and how he's able to wield it.

Yesavage profiles as a quick moving mid-rotation starter. There's definitely more meat on the bone if he sharpen up his secondaries and keep fine-tuning his command. I'm doubtful he'll be adding much more velocity but he's still just 20 and you never know. As far as concerns go, he does have a very high release which might have scared some scouts away in fear that his control or command will back up at the next level. He did deal with a partially collapsed lung but he recovered from that scary situation and it is not believed to have dented his stock much. He also did not pitch in a Power 5 conference but he faced plenty of good competition and we know enough about pitch data at this point that it's hard to believe that was anything more than a small contributing factor. Perhaps Yesavage slipping down to 20 was just the way the board worked out and the Jays got a real steal here. I see him as a safe pick but also one with plenty of talent and the right pick given the options to be had.