Blue Jays’ top pitching prospect Trey Yesavage promoted to Double-A

Yesavage posted a 2.03 ERA and a 1.81 FIP in 93.1 innings pitched in his final season with East Carolina University, and was rewarded by the Blue Jays picking him 20th overall in the 2024 draft.

The 21-year-old didn’t start his professional season until this season, beginning his career with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays. There, the right-handed pitcher authored a 2.43 ERA and 2.38 FIP in 33.1 innings pitched, along with a 43.3 K% and a 6.3 BB%.

It didn’t take long for Yesavage to earn a promotion to the High-A Vancouver Canadians, where he made four starts and finished with a 1.56 ERA and a 3.15 FIP in 17.1 innings pitched. His K% increased to 47.8%, but his BB% also rose significantly to 15.9%.

This season has been shockingly similar to Ricky Tiedemann’s debut season in 2022. The left-handed pitcher also started in Single-A before making his way to Double-A by August 2022. However, Yesavage is a more polished prospect, and if he pitches well with the Fisher Cats, he very well could earn a promotion to Triple-A to pitch for the Bisons by the end of the season.

His success has been recognized as well. In Baseball America’s most recent update to their Top 100 list, Yesavage moved up from the 98th-best prospect in baseball to their 89th-best prospect. It’s not hard to envision him moving further up the list if he’s successful in Double-A.

Yesavage is joining a dominant Fisher Cats pitching staff. In their most recent series, the Fisher Cats shut out their first four games, giving them a 40-inning shutout streak dating back to last Sunday. It was capped off by Rafael Sanchez’s no-hitter, the fourth in Fisher Cats’ history.

The Blue Jays’ upper-minors pitching staff is only going to get stronger when Tiedemann returns from Tommy John surgery later this summer. Adam Macko also returned to Triple-A this past week after knee surgery during Spring Training.