2025 has been good to the Toronto Blue Jays organization, top to bottom, thus far. The big league team is humming, and the farm system has had multiple breakouts and feel-good stories come through.

Potentially the most impactful breakouts, aside from Nimmala, have been the trio of Trey Yesavage, Gage Stanifer, and Khal Stephen. Both Yesavage and Stephen were college selections apart of the 2024 draft class, meanwhile, Stanifer was selected out of Westfield H.S. in the 2022 draft and has been working his way up the farm system since.

Their names have been sort of intertwined this year. They each took Dunedin by storm to begin this season, completely dominating single-A ball hitters with their nasty and advanced repertoires and earning simultaneous promotions to high-A Vancouver on May 16th.

Each of these arms is stylistically different in terms of how they get hitters out. Yesavage has a dominant pitch mix that features four above-average offerings that are each capable of missing bats and inducing soft contact. Stephen uses an outlier fastball that averaged 20″ of IVB and induced a 30.3%  whiff rate in single A and sequences it with mainly a slider and a changeup, both of which also produced well above average swing and miss too. Then there’s Stanifer, who right now works off of a hellacious sinker/slider combination that produces a comedy of whiffs and soft contact. Strike throwing has been an issue for him, as he’s walking nearly 6 hitters per 9, but essentially giving up next to no hard contact. We know how all three of these guys fared in Dunedin, but how have they looked since their promotions? Let’s dive in.

Stanifer has been used as a piggyback to Yesavage all season. It started in Dunedin, and it’s continued since both were promoted to Vancouver. Stanifer (obviously) has also gotten into four games with the Canadians. He’s accumulated 15 innings in that time. His ERA sits at 2.40 while his FIP drops down to 2.06.

Much like Yesavage, Stanifer is missing A LOT of bats. His strikeout rate has climbed since the promotion, sitting at a gaudy 44.1%, and he has struggled mightily with his control; his walk rate sits at an unsightly 16.9%. The piggyback duo have been essentially the pitcher combining for nine innings of work. They’re going to strike out your entire lineup, walk a bunch of guys, and give up next to no hits. High-A hitters are hitting a measly .122 against Gage; however, his BABIP against is .261, suggesting he’s had no extra luck on his side on balls put in play. Stanifer is the least heralded of the three arms, but he’s been just as impressive, if not more thus far in 2025.

Stephen hasn’t made his fourth start with Vancouver yet at the time of this article being written. He’s tossed 14 innings in his three starts, which tells us he’s been getting deeper into games than Yesavage has thus far.

Stephen’s ERA with the Canadians sits at 3.21 with a near identical FIP of 3.24. He hasn’t missed bats to the insane degree that Trey and Gage have, but he’s still comfortably missing a ton (27.1%). The stark difference comes in the walk rate. Khal Stephen doesn’t walk anybody. His walk rate sits at a minuscule 5.1%, and his K-BB% of 22.1% is in the top seven of all Northwest League pitchers this season (albeit the smaller sample size). The other big difference between Stephen and his two companions is that Khal is an extreme flyball pitcher, evidenced by his 48.6% flyball rate. He has managed to keep the ball in the park with relative ease to begin his pro career, however, and he’ll always run lower BABIPs than groundball pitchers because of it.

Yesavage has gotten four starts under his belt with the Canadians, accumulating 17 1/3 innings. His ERA sits at 1.56, with a FIP of 3.21. High-A hitters have scraped together an .086 average off of him, albeit Yesavage has been getting a bit of luck on his side as evidenced by the .130 BABIP against him. The sample size is extremely small, however, because the ball is simply not being put in play when Yesavage is on the mound, and when it is, 52% of the time, it’s on the ground. There’s no better way to mitigate damage.

His strikeout rate sits at a barbaric 47.8% while his walk rate is also extremely bloated (15.9%). The simple fact is, his fielders behind him can walk out onto the field without their gloves at this point and be comfortably sure they won’t need them. Yesavage is already a consensus top 100 prospect, and once he irons out his control issues, he’s going to skyrocket into the top 5-10 starter prospects conversation.

These are good times to be a Blue Jays fan; the team is good, and the farm is on the upswing. Some of these prospects will lead the next generation of Blue Jays, some of them may get packaged at the deadline/offseason to upgrade the big league roster. Some, unfortunately, simply won’t pan out.

However, this organization is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were last season in terms of future assets. A testament to the work done by new scouting director Marc Tramuta, Justin Lehr, the new pitching development coordinator, and dozens and dozens of others behind the scenes, who we may not be privy to. Unfortunately for the band, one member is off to New Hampshire given their recent performance, with Trey Yesavage getting the nod to face tougher competition on the East Coast. Stephen and Stanifer aren’t likely too far behind, so the trio will likely be back together soon, but for now, Yesavage is getting an opportunity to prove he can continue to shove at the next level.