The Toronto Blue Jays are continuing to make their plan for young starter Trey Yesavage clear heading into 2026. After already saying they can't count on him for 30-plus starts and 200 innings, we now know that they will build him up slowly at the beginning of the season.

Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet:

While best-case scenario for Trey Yesavage is to have him ready to pitch 5+ innings when season begins, John Schneider says Jays will ramp him up deliberately. If that means 3-4 IP games to start the season, Jays are OK w/ that. Plan is he'll ramp up at MLB, though. Not AAA.

Drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft out of East Carolina, Yesavage did not make his professional debut until 2025. The most innings that Yesavage ever threw in college was 93.1 (2024), and he beat that in the 2025 minor league regular season, tossing 98.0. However, factoring in the playoff run, Yesavage ended up tossing 125 innings for the totality of the campaign, meaning that he went significantly past his career-high.

Because of the length of the season, this was also the shortest offseason of Yesavage's career, so the Jays have every intention of being careful with him. He's the No. 1 - ranked prospect in the organization and a big part of the team's present and future.

After recently signing Max Scherzer to a one-year deal, there are questions about how the Jays will handle the rotation.

Will the team go with a six-man rotation to further protect Yesavage? Will Yesavage toss short starts with Jose Berrios or Eric Lauer following behind him for bulk work? Any of it is possible at this point as the Jays look to head back to the World Series for the second straight year.

--Members of the organization are starting to depart for the World Baseball Classic, which begins on March 5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is leaving on Sunday, which will be a big exit from camp. Ernie Clement (USA), Kazuma Okamoto (Japan), Leo Jimenez (Panama), Andres Gimenez (Venezuela) and Alejandro Kirk (Mexico) are all playing as well. 

--Speaking of Jimenez: How will his absence from camp impact his chances of making the roster in 2026? We outlined one of the more interesting positional battles on the roster here. 

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