Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. That was the day Trey Yesavage made his professional debut, starting for the Dunedin Blue Jays in front of a crowd of just 327 people. Fast forward six months, and Yesavage has now thrown more innings in the postseason (19) for the Toronto Blue Jays than he did in the entire regular season (14).

This rise didn’t come out of nowhere. Yesavage was a consensus top-10 talent in the 2024 MLB Draft who slid to Toronto at 20th overall, a gift created by draft dynamics rather than scouting oversight. Some evaluators believed he was polished enough to start his career in Double-A.

Instead, the Blue Jays opened his journey in Single-A Dunedin, largely due to weather considerations — pitching in April in Vancouver or New Hampshire isn’t always ideal developmentally. And what followed surprised no one internally:

With Yesavage now established as a breakout postseason arm, the natural question becomes:

Are there prospects in the Blue Jays’ development pipeline who could accelerate quickly and follow a similar trajectory in 2026?

Here are three legitimate candidates.

Age: 17
Signed: 2025 IFA Class
Bonus: $1 million

Juan Sanchez was a part of the 2025 IFA class by the Blue Jays this past January and received the second-highest bonus pool ($1 million) of all their signings.

At just 17 years old, Sanchez spent the entire year over in the Dominican Summer League, where he slashed .341/.439/.565 with 8 homers, 40 RBI, and a 156 wRC+ across 253 plate appearances. Now, as is the case with all DSL stats, take it with the biggest grain of salt.

It’s what Geoff Pontes of Baseball America had to say that really grabbed my attention. Geoff, working with BA, has access to underlying data on prospects that isn’t available to the public, and he noted that while he was digging in on Sanchez under the hood, he found a lot of similarities to Junior Caminero when he was a teenager playing in the DSL while still a part of the Guardians organization. It’s elite power projection with an above-average hit tool and elite bat speed. Sanchez is expected to begin next season in the Florida Complex League and, from there, if he hits, a quick promotion to Dunedin.

There’s a zero percent chance Sanchez comes close to sniffing the majors in 2026, but a chance to ascend multiple levels and expedite his timeline is certainly on the table.

Age: 19
Drafted: 4th Round, 2024
Bonus: $1.25 million

King was the Blue Jays’ fourth-round selection from the 2024 amateur draft, which is now looking like it was a home run draft for the organization.

Fresh out of Naples High School, King made his professional debut in the Complex league and utterly dominated that level to the tune of a 1.13 ERA/1.53 FIP, 41.8 K%, and 34.7 K-BB% across 24 innings. That got him a swift promotion to A ball, where King struggled mightily with command, walking 17.9% of the hitters he faced. That said, he was still striking out damn near everybody (38.1 K%) and opponents scraped together a .201 average against him.

King probably starts the year with Dunedin again (remember he just turned 19 years old), but quickly receives a promotion to Vancouver after he dominates A ball. From there, performance will dictate what happens next. There’s a very good chance that King continues to overwhelm hitters in High-A and gets bumped to Double-A New Hampshire, where he’ll face his most difficult test yet.

Make no mistake about it, Johnny King is a certified dude and someone you should be paying extremely close attention to in 2026.

Age: 22
Signed: 2024 IFA Class
Bonus: $240,000

Now, for a name that may not be familiar to some. Silvano Hechavarria is a recent IFA signing by the Blue Jays as part of their 2024 class out of Cuba. Signed for $240,000, Hechavarria debuted in the DSL in 2024 and produced a 1.84 ERA across 49 innings, albeit with a 3.55 FIP.

In 2025, Hechavrria started in the Complex League, where he pitched for 17 innings before getting a promotion to Dunedin. While there, Hechavarria opened some eyes. Across 47 1/3 IP, he produced a 1.90 ERA/3.17 FIP/3.08 SIERA, backed up with a sterling 22.6 K-BB% before a late-season promotion to Vancouver, where he finished the year.

The Cuban right-hander is known for filling up the strike zone with a fastball/cutter/changeup repertoire. He would stand to benefit from adding a true breaking ball to his arsenal, but this is a true bulldog on the mound who’s got extremely advanced pitchability and sequences extremely well. Hechavarria will either begin 2026 back with Vancouver or could get pushed to the Fisher Cats due to his advanced feel for pitching and the Blue Jays wanting to see how he fares against better competition. This is a guy who could advance really quickly with an outside chance of helping out the big league club sometime late in the 2026 season.

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