Why Trey Yesavage was the Blue Jays' MVP for the month of May

Following a disastrous start to the year, the Toronto Blue Jays recovered to play .500 baseball (15-14) in May, getting solid contributions from their offense (.693 OPS) and pitching staff (3.45 ERA). That's obviously not good enough for a World Series hopeful, as they're still 29-31 and 9.0 games back of the AL East lead, but it was a step in the right direction.

A number of players did their best to propel the team out of their early season rut, including Kevin Gausman (3.18 ERA, 1.0 fWAR), Dylan Cease (43 strikeouts in 30.2innings), and even Brandon Valenzuela (127 wRC+, elite defense behind the plate). Likewise, our April MVP, closer Louis Varland, again dominated out of the bullpen, tossing 15 scoreless frames while recording four saves.

And yet, the pick for this month's Blue Jays MVP wasn't really that hard of a choice. Trey Yesavage returned to the rotation and picked up right where he left off last postseason, becoming the clear heir apparent to Gausman as the team's ace.

Trey Yesavage just proved that his postseason heroics were no fluke

From a general standpoint, Yesavage led the team in fWAR (1.1) and innings pitched (31.2) in May. Despite strong performances from Gausman, Cease, and even Patrick Corbin, he was the best pitcher in the Blue Jays' rotation last month.

He backed up his 2.56 ERA with an even-more sterling 2.51 FIP, which is rather impressive considering he walked 17 batters over his six starts. Those control issues are his biggest red flag, but a 27.9% strikeout rate makes it easy to work around traffic on the basepaths.

Part of his brilliance is that he simply doesn't give up home runs, despite being a fly-ball pitcher. He has yet to surrender a long ball in the regular season, a positive consequence of being so effective on the vertical plane with his fastball-splitter combo.

With an additional incentive to win the Rookie of the Year Award -- the Blue Jays would earn an additional draft pick as part of the Prospect Promotion Incentive if he does -- expect to see Yesavage handle a huge workload for the remainder of the season as long as he's healthy. With Cease (and Shane Bieber) on the shelf, plus José Berrios and Cody Ponce out for the season, Toronto will need their star rookie to carry a sizable burden alongside Gausman atop the rotation.

If his May performance is any indication, Yesavage is more than up to the task.

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