Thursday, July 10

TORONTO -- This hasn’t just been a good season for the big club, it’s been a good one for the entire organization. 

The Blue Jays’ farm system has shaken off some of the struggles and bad luck that filled headlines in recent years, bouncing back with a fantastic run of development stories, particularly on the pitching side. No. 2 prospect Trey Yesavage is the star of this movement, and he’ll get to feel the spotlight of the All-Star Futures Game on July 12.

Yesavage has shot through three levels this season, from Single-A Dunedin up to Double-A New Hampshire, and while he’s still looking to find his groove again through four starts with the Fisher Cats, his season-long numbers are dominant. The big right-hander has a 2.92 ERA with 107 strikeouts over 64 2/3 innings, completely overwhelming younger hitters at times. 

Yesavage didn’t pitch in 2024 after the Blue Jays selected him with the 20th pick in the Draft, so ‘25 has been his pro debut. Even in an era of accelerated development, it’s extremely unlikely that the Blue Jays would push Yesavage right to the big leagues to help the stretch run, but GM Ross Atkins didn’t shoot down the idea completely.

“Fifteen years ago, I would have said, ‘Probably not.’ That’s a lot to ask,” Atkins said. “In today’s game, because of how strong the amateur game has become and how much they’ve improved at development, it is more realistic for these guys to transition to the Major Leagues at a very rapid rate. Having said that, that’s not our focus. Our focus is for him to build a foundation and to be a Major League starting pitcher for 10-plus years, which is so hard to do. That will be the backdrop of our focus, but we’re not closing doors to contributions from significant impact players in our system.”

This season began with an understanding, essentially, that Yesavage was too good for Single-A. The Blue Jays wanted to keep him away from the unpredictable weather in the High-A Northwest League, though, and give him some more time in Florida to get into the routines of a pro. This is the boring part of development from the outside looking in, but one of the most important.

“Getting into the Major League routine or the professional routine and pitching every five to six days has been the biggest one,” Atkins said. “His command has improved as he’s made two transitions, and he’s handled those exceptionally well. His arsenal is already something that projects to be very effective, so I think the workload has been the biggest stride he’s made, and he’s managing that very well.”

Along with Khal Stephen (No. 9) and Johnny King (No. 11), the top three rounds of the Blue Jays’ 2024 Draft class are off to an excellent start. The Blue Jays hold the No. 8 pick in this year’s Draft, so they’ll have their pick of some high-end talent, but Yesavage serves as a bit of a blueprint now for the type of pitcher this player development group can take and level up. 

He also represents a lesson in drafting for the Blue Jays, who will now operate under amateur scouting director Marc Tramuta. There’s always going to be some level of health risk with pitchers, but at a certain level, you need to bet big on talent.

“We just felt really comfortable that he was a somewhat fully-formed college pitcher,” Tramuta said, “and on a certain track, he could move fast because he threw strikes. He basically had all of his weapons built out, and there was basically only some finer tweaking to be done, and I think that’s played out in his career so far. Pitchers are just a little more risky because of what they do, but we can’t completely eliminate that type of demographic or shy away, because we thought he was the best player in that spot.”

By this time next year, Yesavage should have every opportunity to be part of the Blue Jays’ rotation. His 2025 workload could land him in the neighborhood of 110-plus innings, too, which would be a great baseline to build up from. 

He’s earned the spotlight of the Futures Game first though, another challenge for the gifted 21-year-old who just keeps knocking them down. 

The closer we get to the 2025 MLB Draft, the more mocks you’ll see. Our latest comes from Jim Callis, who mocks LSU lefty Kade Anderson to the Nationals with the first overall pick. 

Callus has Florida State left-hander Jamie Arnold -- his No. 4 overall prospect -- going to the Blue Jays with the eighth pick. You can read those details and the rest of our latest MLB Pipeline Mock Draft here.

With Clayton Kershaw recently reaching the incredible milestone of 3,000 career strikeouts, MLB.com broke down each organization’s strikeout leader right here.

In Toronto, everyone is still chasing the great Dave Stieb (1,658), and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for a while. Roy Halladay fell just short (1,495), but it takes a combination of great talent and longevity in a Blue Jays uniform. Kevin Gausman (697) leads all current players, but for someone to take a real run at Stieb, they’d likely need to pitch for a decade in Toronto. 

Stieb also holds the club records for wins (175), innings (2,873), complete games (103) and shutouts (30). We might need to already accept that those last two will never be touched.

To subscribe to Blue Jays Beat, visit this page and mark "Blue Jays Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Blue Jays or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.