Trey Yesavage impresses in long-awaited Blue Jays debut

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Trey Yesavage was nervous when he stepped on the mound at TD Ballpark on Saturday afternoon.

“My coronary heart was beating like loopy,” Yesavage stated afterward.

Now, that’s to be anticipated since this was the primary time the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander was taking the ball in a sport as an expert participant.

Yesavage had bother discovering the strike zone and put runners on first and second to open his outing, but bore down and escaped the jam by inducing a fly out to left subject adopted by a floor out to shortstop.

When he returned to the dugout, the 21-year-old did not inform anyone about his nerves. There was no level.

“I simply knew what I wanted to do,” stated Yesavage.

He composed himself in between innings and that definitely shone by when the right-hander struck out the facet within the subsequent body. It was electrical stuff and, because of this, Yesavage generated some good buzz within the Blue Jays’ 10-0 rout over the Minnesota Twins throughout their MLB Spring Breakout contest, which featured a bevy of premier prospects from each organizations.

Alan Roden, who’s pushing for a spot with the major-league membership, led the way in which for the Blue Jays with a two-run, opposite-field double off the left subject wall, whereas Arjun Nimmala recorded an RBI single as one in every of his two hits.

Blue Jays right-hander Jake Bloss tossed two dominant innings after which gave approach to Yesavage, who pitched the third and fourth innings, permitting simply two hits whereas hanging out three. His fastball was significantly spectacular, topping out at 97 m.p.h. and sitting at 95.5 m.p.h.

The Blue Jays drafted Yesavage twentieth general out of East Carolina College final 12 months, and he did not pitch in 2024 after he signed with the membership. That created an extended build-up main into Saturday’s sport, during which Yesavage’s mother and father and household associates had been within the crowd.

“It is positively been lengthy, sluggish, methodical,” stated Yesavage. “Each element has been accounted for, nevertheless it’s lastly superb to be on the market pitching in a Blue Jays uniform.”

All through his first spring coaching, Yesavage says he’s been studying the ropes of professional ball and attempting to determine routines. He’s assembly new faces and was even stopped within the hallway the opposite day by a fellow East Carolina Pirates alumnus — Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman.

“Which is admittedly cool,” says Yesavage. “He is an excellent man. Stated he loved watching me final 12 months and [he’s] somebody I can positively look as much as.”

Yesavage is kind of superior as a pitcher, having performed three seasons within the NCAA, the place he posted a 2.58 ERA over 195.1 innings with 295 strikeouts in opposition to 74 walks. Such expertise might set the right-hander on a quick observe to the majors, not not like the trail Alek Manoah travelled to Toronto a couple of years in the past.

Nevertheless, Yesavage says he refuses to permit prospect boards or prognosticators to affect his pondering.

“I am not feeding into what I name ‘The rat poison,'” he says. “Being true to myself, caring for my very own enterprise, and good issues will come.”

Yesavage labored in his four-pitch repertoire on Saturday and left teammates impressed.

“It is the primary time I’ve seen him pitch and I favored it,” Nimmala stated. “Splitter’s soiled. He threw a slider at 90 [m.p.h.] at this time and he was throwing very arduous.”

Nimmala, the Blue Jays’ first-round choose in 2023, has impressed onlookers in his personal proper for the reason that begin of camp. He is performed alongside main leaguers in a couple of Grapefruit League video games — even hitting a house run final week — and continued to seem like he belongs on Saturday.

The toolsy shortstop drove a 107.4-m.p.h. single up the center within the first inning then added an RBI single within the fourth body. The latter was a pleasant piece of hitting as Nimmala pulled his arms towards his physique to get the barrel of the bat on an inside sinker and subsequently drove it by the five-six gap with a 100.4-m.p.h. exit velocity.

Requested about his confidence degree, Nimmala supplied a robust response.

“I believe it is super-high,” he stated. “I’ve all the time been a really assured participant, even when struggles hit, however all the time protecting that confidence up is one thing that I’ve tried to work on.

The shortstop added that he and Yesavage have truly been lockermates this spring, and who is aware of, perhaps sooner or later that would be the case within the house clubhouse at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays will definitely dream on the duo impacting the major-league workforce collectively, identical to they did on Saturday.