The 22-year-old was the Blue Jays’ first-round pick in the 2024 June amateur draft, and he’s done nothing but impress since. He was spectacular across 11 appearances split between Single-A and High-A earlier this season, and he’s shown that he certainly belongs, as he’s faced stiffer competition in the upper levels of the minors as the year has gone on.
Across four levels, he’s posted a 3.12 ERA and a 0.969 WHIP over 98.0 innings pitched, striking out a staggering 160 batters against just 41 walks issued. No, that’s not a typo; he actually had 160 Ks over just 98 innings in his first professional season, and it probably has a lot to do with why the Pennsylvania native is being called up to the big leagues right now, and
why he’s shot up top 100 prospect lists throughout the year.
While the Blue Jays have shown that they’re fully in win-now mode throughout the year, bringing up Yesavage at this point in the season is the latest proof that ownership and the front office are prepared to push all of their chips in on the 2025 playoffs. They weren’t shy last winter when they spent money on bringing in veterans like Max Scherzer, Anthony Santander, Jeff Hoffman, Andres Gimenez and more, and they added further at this year’s trade deadline when they acquired Shane Bieber, Seranthony Dominguez, Louie Varland, Ty France and others as well. Despite all of those reinforcements, the bullpen has still been an obvious area of need for the club in recent weeks, and they’re clearly hoping that Yesavage can give them a boost.
Is that a realistic thing to expect from the newest Blue Jay right-hander?
Only time will tell, but personally, I’m a big fan of bringing him up now and seeing if he is capable of helping this team in 2025. The Blue Jays have significant plans for his future where he’ll eventually be part of the big league rotation, but for now, Yesavage will be asked to pitch out of the bullpen, something that he’s just recently had a taste of in Buffalo and New Hampshire. The assumption was that they wanted to give him a chance to get used to coming in during the middle of a game rather than off the hop, and sure enough, the Blue Jays’ top prospect will get that opportunity.
Fans will want to temper their expectations a bit and understand that Yesavage won’t be joining the bullpen as a saviour. He’ll join a group that includes Hoffman, Dominguez, Varland, Brendon Little, Yariel Rodriguez, Eric Lauer, and others, and probably takes the roster spot of one of Braydon Fisher, Tommy Nance, or Ryan Borucki (it will likely be Borucki).
It’s doubtful that Yesavage will be asked to pitch in high-leverage situations, at least to start, but he also brings the benefit of being able to throw multiple innings, serving as a potential long man in addition to Lauer. More than anything, I’m guessing they like his swing and miss potential after seeing him rack up 160 strikeouts in the minors this year, and they’re probably hoping he can bring a little bit of that to the big league mound in Toronto as well.
It’s not the first time a team has called up a young reliever just before the end of the season like this, and I can’t imagine it’ll be the last.
I’m old enough to remember when a young David Price made five quick regular-season appearances for the Tampa Bay Rays on the way to eventually losing to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series, pitching just 14.0 regular-season innings before becoming a crucial part of their postseason bullpen. Ironically enough,
Price made his MLB debut on September 14, 2008, and 17 years later to the day, Yesavage will have the chance to do the same,
although it sounds like he may not be activated until Monday, according to a tweet from Sportnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith.
Back then, Price immediately showed the Rays that he could contribute when the stakes were at their highest, and the Blue Jays are hoping that Yesavage might bring some of the same energy. Price had the advantage of giving the Rays an additional southpaw out of their bullpen, but in Yesavage’s case, I’m guessing the Blue Jays would be happy with a spark of any kind, especially one that struck out nearly two batters per inning in the minor leagues this year.
While I don’t think we should expect Yesavage to get called on to challenge Jeff Hoffman’s job as the closer, the hope is that he can add to a bullpen group that has been struggling in recent weeks. In a perfect world, he’ll find a way to carve out a role and hopefully get enough of a taste of competition at the highest level to be ready to pitch in the playoffs as well. Is that too much to ask? Probably, but the very best in the sport often thrive when faced with a challenge, and Yesavage has proven himself to be among the top tier of prospects in the game as he struck out 41.1% of the batters he faced in the minor leagues this year.
At the very least, I’m all in on giving Yesavage a shot to see what he can do against big league hitters, and whether he can be one of the Blue Jays’ best eight or nine relievers. After the season he’s had, I wouldn’t bet against him.
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