The young right-hander pitched well as the Blue Jays beat the Nationals on Wednesday.
The Toronto Blue Jays earned a win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, moving to 50-59 on the season and making it a happy flight home in advance of Thursday's off day.
At 50-59, we still think the best course of action for the Blue Jays is trade off players on expiring contracts at the trade deadline, namely Kevin Gausman, George Springer, Daulton Varsho and Shane Bieber, but that doesn't mean there won't be other things worth watching and noting for the rest of the season.
One of those things will continue to be the development and performance of Trey Yesavage, who is still in just his first full year as a major league pitcher. The young right-hander went 6.2 innings in Wednesday's win, giving up just one earned run on three hits. He walked three and struck out four in moving to 5-5 with a 3.73 ERA.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage (39) throws to the Washington Nationals during the second inning at Nationals Park. Brad Mills-Imagn ImagesAs noted by StatsCentre, Yesavage now has 107 career strikeouts, which is the second-most in Blue Jays history for a pitcher's first 20 regular season appearances. Only Alek Manoah, a former All-Star, had more. He had 127 strikeouts in that time. Yesavage passed Juan Guzman (106) and Drew Hutchison (104) with his performance.
Drafted in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of East Carolina, Yesavage made his major league debut last September, becoming an integral part of the Jays run to the World Series. He won games in the American League Division Series, American League Championship Series and World Series.
This year, he was on the injured list at the beginning of the season, which is why he's only made 17 appearances thus far. He has 91 strikeouts in 91.2 innings.
Should the Blue Jays trade the likes of Gausman and Bieber, Yesavage will join Dylan Cease as the only members of the starting rotation that the Jays planned to have at the beginning of the campaign.
Up next for Toronto
Off on Thursday, the Jays will welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to Rogers Centre on Friday night. First pitch is set for 7:07 p.m. ET as Dylan Cease pitches against right-hander Kyle Leahy.
Cease, who started the All-Star Game for the American League, has gone 7-5 with a 2.46 ERA thus far. He's struck out a whopping 167 batters and is well on his way to a sixth straight 200-strikeout season.
Leahy has gone 7-4 with a 3.55 ERA. The Cardinals are 54-54.
