Article: Blue Jays 2025 Top 20 Prospect Rankings: No. 2, Trey Yesavage

[Daniel Labude]

Welcome back to the Jays Centre Top 20 Prospect reveal and breakdown. Today, we will look at one of the most unknown prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system. This prospect's minor league career has not started yet, but they still come in at number two overall for Blue Jays prospects, as the Jays Centre community voted on. It is quite the lofty expectation for Trey Yesavage, one that he will attempt to live up to when he finally makes his Blue Jays debut this year. Let's take a look at what makes him so popular. 

#2: Trey Yesavage, SP, 21
Yesavage was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2024 as a 1st round pick, 20th overall. He signed for roughly the pick's slot value, just over $4 million. He spent his college career at East Carolina University (ECU), alternating between being a relief pitcher and starting pitcher. Ultimately, he settled into a starting pitching role his sophomore year and continued with it the rest of the way at ECU. As a freshman, he displayed a knack for striking out batters, with a strikeout rate of 37.5%. In his sophomore season, he continued the strikeout barrage as a starting pitcher with a 33.9% strikeout rate. This also came with a very good 7.4% walk rate as he started commanding the strike zone, posting a sparkling 2.84 ERA in 76 innings pitched.

Yesavage would take things up a notch as a junior, finishing with a 2.03 ERA in 93.1 innings pitched. The strikeouts jumped to a mind-boggling 40.4% rate, as he became one of the best strikeout pitchers in college baseball. A collapsed lung slowed him down at the end of his junior year, but not before capping off his college career by throwing one game following the injury, where he pitched 7.1 innings and struck out six batters on his way to beating future number two overall pick Chase Burns. Given the collapsed lung, the Blue Jays took it easy after drafting Yesavage and did not have him appear in any official games. 

What to Like
Yesavage, a big-bodied pitcher at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, has the whole toolbox to work with in terms of pitch mix. That is his biggest takeaway: he can beat hitters with many pitches, speeds, and locations. He pitches from a very over-the-top arm slot, which helps his mid-90s fastball play well up in the zone. He pairs that with a sharp breaking splitter and a good moving slider. These three pitches all grade out as plus already, and he has a developing curveball he can also mix in. He can already command his pitches and control the strike zone very well, so there shouldn't be an issue with walks compared to some newly drafted pitchers. The second thing to like about Yesavage's pitch mix is he can miss bats at the top of the zone with his fastball, bottom of the zone with the splitter, and both sides of the plate with the splitter and slider. This will help him as he progresses through the minor leagues, especially versus left-handed hitters, who can be a challenge to some right-handed pitchers.

What Needs Work
Yesavage will need to work on continuing to develop a fourth pitch. Having three plus pitches is enough to become a capable MLB starter, but to jump up another level he could use a fourth pitch to keep hitters even more off balance. If he can develop the curveball enough to use for a first pitch strike every now and then, he could progress quickly through the minors. 

As a new Toronto Blue Jays pitching prospect, Yesavage should also work on staying healthy. It has been a plague over the last few years with Blue Jays pitching prospects ending up injured and missing significant time. If he can stay healthy, he will be a quick riser heading towards Toronto. This potential to move through the farm system quickly has much needed extra value for him and could help the Blue Jays tremendously, adding a depth starting pitcher that can help out in case of injury. 

What is Next
Yesavage is set to make his debut on March 15th in the Spring Breakout game for the Toronto Blue Jays. Following that, he should move quickly up minor league levels and be pushed aggressively in his assignment. He could start at High-A Vancouver or possibly Double-A New Hampshire. If all goes well for him, he could see the major leagues at the end of the 2025 season or sometime in 2026. He is definitely looking like the next big thing for Blue Jays pitching prospects. 

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