A Look Into What Trey Yesavage's Usage Might Look Like In 2026

[Michael Coyle]

Trey Yesavage took the baseball world by storm last October, shining on baseball’s biggest stage against some of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars. 

Last season, Yesavage climbed the ranks of the Toronto Blue Jays’ farm system, starting the season in Single-A with Dunedin before finishing the 2025 campaign as a member of the Blue Jays’ rotation in the World Series. 

In total, Yesavage pitched in 139 ⅔ innings with 27 ⅔ of those coming during the Blue Jays’ postseason run. Selected in the first-round, 20th overall during the 2024 MLB draft and still only 22-years-old, the Blue Jays will be tasked with making sure that Yesavage remains healthy as he enters his first season at the professional level. 

Yesavage has yet to make an appearance during a spring training game, slowly building his way up, going along with the plan the Blue Jays have put in place. Speaking to Sportsnet’s Ben-Nicholson Smith, Yesavage spoke on the Blue Jays’ plan to play it cautious with the right-hander’s workload. 

“They’re taking me slow, slower than anyone else in here,” Yesavage said. “I know they have my best interests in mind, so I have all the faith in them for whatever they plan the future to look like. I’m just following orders, per se.”

With under three weeks until opening day, the likely scenario is that Yesavage appears in two or three spring games before the Blue Jays break camp and head to Toronto to prepare for opening day against the Athletics. 

Blue Jays manager John Schneider has already said that the Blue Jays aren’t about to ask Yesavage to throw 200-plus innings this season, so that sets up Yesavage to be on a pitch limit through portions of the season. 

What Does This Mean?

This is where the Blue Jays’ depth of arms comes into play. Currently, they have Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease and José Berríos appearing to be slotted into rotation spots. Shane Bieber, if healthy, will claim a role, leaving Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer as other potential options heading into 2026. 

Scherzer, like Yesavage, is still being worked into games due to his late signing, so he may not be an option when the regular season begins. Bieber hasn’t worked his way into a game yet either, leaving room for doubt that he will be ready to open the season. 

This means that Yesavage and Lauer working as a tandem to begin the season in one of the rotation spots may be the most likely scenario. Last season, Lauer worked as both a starter and reliever, going 9-2 with an ERA of 3.18, FIP of 3.85 and a WHIP of 1.10, while holding opposing batters to a .227 average. 

The left-hander would provide a different look either opening for Yesavage or coming in following the tall right-hander. Both pitchers made appearances out of the bullpen last year, so this is something that wouldn’t be completely foreign to either. 

Using both Yesavage and Lauer on the same day could raise concerns about the overuse of the bullpen. That will require the following day’s starter to provide length if the Blue Jays are routinely forced to use three-to-four relievers on days that Yesavage pitches early in the season. 

Using the Yesavage-Lauer combo in the team’s fifth spot would make sense, leaving whoever the Blue Jays choose to start the year with as the follow-up, likely being one of Gausman or Cease, who routinely throw quality starts. 

While in a perfect world, Yesavage could throw a full-season, but as the Blue Jays look to protect last year’s star, depth will come into play as Yesavage continues to grow as a pitcher in MLB. 

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