TORONTO – Time and again when discussing various roster decisions, John Schneider has made clear that meritocracy rules, and the plan to promote Trey Yesavage and start him Monday at the Tampa Bay Rays is perhaps the clearest example yet of that approach.
On the one hand, moving the 22-year-old, a first-round pick a mere summer ago, to what will be a fifth level in his first pro season, is unusually aggressive, especially given his status as the Toronto Blue Jays’ top pitching prospect. Caution, generally speaking, is the order with such promising young arms.
On the other hand, though, is that some evaluators felt his fastball/slider/splitter repertoire was already big-league calibre at East Carolina University and he’s only gotten better since, striking out 160 batters in a combined 98 innings this year. Given that, what’s the sense of artificially slowing his progress, especially with the big-league club top the American League East and looking to max out?
To his credit, Yesavage drove the process with his performance and the Blue Jays leaned into the reasons to say yes, rather than the reasons to say no, when making the call.
“The scales have been kind of tipping for a while and, at this point, we’re trying to just have – I’ve said this before – the best 14 pitchers that we have in our system helping us win games,” said Schneider. “The way he’s kind of been able to adapt to different roles and, obviously the stuff speaks for itself, looking forward to having that stuff on our team.”
So much so that the Blue Jays were willing to risk some awkwardness with Eric Lauer – the lefty whose 96.2 innings of work were essential in stabilizing the pitching staff early in the season, but relegated to the bullpen shortly after Shane Bieber’s activation – and the rest of the rotation, which is wary of too many rest days between starts.
Through this turn, with the Blue Jays in the middle of 13 games in 13 days and Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios and Max Scherzer working through or having dealt with general soreness or a more specific ailment, giving everyone an extra day is more sensible than disruptive.
Berrios, originally slated to start Monday, now goes Tuesday, followed by Kevin Gausman, who threw a 100-pitch shutout last Thursday, and Bassitt in Tampa. Beyond the coming turn, though, what’s best is less certain and it’s reasonable to think the Blue Jays may need to feel their way through the coming stretch.
To that end, Schneider left Yesavage’s usage beyond Monday open, replying “we’ll see,” when asked if the rookie will get a second start. “Definitely can. We’re trying to just figure out ways to win as many games as we can. So if that’s him in the rotation, great. If it’s not, great. But we think that he’s fully capable of being a major-league starter. …
“Really,” he added later, “it came down to just taking the opportunity to add the level of talent that Trey brings. That, more so than anything, more so than the rest for the other starters, was OK, we feel like this guy can come in and help get outs and help us compete, help us win games at the major-league level. That was the driving force behind it.”
All of which led to Yesavage on the team, a feeling he described as “insane.”
He’d been slated to start at triple-A Buffalo when informed of the news, at first becoming “very emotional” before becoming “almost like, numb. I didn’t know how to feel. It was just a whirlwind of emotions.”
Those began to settle as he walked into the Blue Jays clubhouse Sunday morning and learned that he’s starting Monday. With the Bisons, he’d made four starts as well as two appearances out of the bullpen, experiences he said, “proves that I’m adaptable, I can be thrown in any situation, any time of the game and still give everything I got to the team. Wherever they needed me, I was there and ready to go.”
The Blue Jays opted for a start, rather than a relief appearance, for Yesavage’s debut after their internal deliberations concluded that would offer him the smoothest entry point.
Reaching the big-leagues isn’t an outcome he necessarily thought was possible at the beginning of the season – he mentioned not believing his agents when they initially suggested the possibility – but changed his mind once he reached triple-A.
Now a season that started in Dunedin and has since taken him to Vancouver, New Hampshire and Buffalo adds a transition to Toronto, as well.
“Jumping from level to level, this being my fifth team – it’s crazy. It’s crazy,” he repeated. “But it’s been a great experience.”
One that Yesavage earned by forcing the Blue Jays to push him up each step of the way.
