Trey Yesavage is a 22-year-old, right-handed pitcher. He was our first round draft pick (20th overall) in 2024. Trey got a $4,177,500 signing bonus (I’m trying to figure out how many beers I can get at the club at happy hour with 4.2 million, but let’s just say a lot. Of course, I would have to get chicken wings to go with them, so not as many. There is an old joke about a guy who spent all his money on booze and women, the rest he just wasted). He made a rapid rise through the minor leagues, and he was called up to the Jays in mid-September. He made three regular-season starts, two very good, one not good, and then he was thrown into the fire of a playoff run.
He’s still a rookie.
Trey made six playoff appearances, five starts, and one relief appearance, going 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA. In 27.2 innings, he allowed 18 hits, 11 walks, and had 39 strikeouts. Not every start was great, but most were. He had a bit of an edge because batters hadn’t seen his delivery (from the batter’s box) and his delivery is different than most pitchers. Tom M explained it:
Yesavage’s delivery comes over the top with a short arm action. His pitches come out 7.08 feet off the ground on average, which is higher than any pitcher in the majors this season (about 3⁄4 of an inch higher than leaders Pete Fairbanks or Justin Verlander and over 15 inches higher than the median). That creates a serious downhill plane to the plate, which is a little unfashionable right now because flatter angles pair better with the riding four seamers that are currently dominant. Because of how short his arm action is, as well as the tallness of his delivery, he also has below average extension that takes about two thirds of an mph off the perceived velocity of his pitches. There’s always value in giving hitters an uncommon look, though, and right now they don’t see a lot of balls that bear down on them in the way Yesavage’s do.
One positive thing the delivery does is allow him to get nearly pure backspin on his fastball, which he’s thrown 94 times among 198 pitches in his most recent three outings. The pitch generates an elite 19.9 inches of induced vertical break, which is about 4” more than the typical fastball thrown equally hard in the majors (he averages 94.7mph). It’s relatively straight, with 5.3 inches of arm side run, but with his kind of vertical movement that isn’t a problem. Overall the fastball profiles as a plus pitch that should be able to miss bats and generate pop ups up in the zone.
Baseball Savant says he averaged 94.7 mph and topped out at 96.9, and that 50% were in the strike zone. It tells me a lot about how baseball has changed in my lifetime that the 94.7 mph is just very slightly above league average.
He also throws a slider, averaging 88.7 mph and topping at 90.9. Savant says 2229 rpm, and 50% of those were in the strike zone. It moves 4 inches towards a right-handed batter, 4 inches, and it drops 29 inches (league average 4 inches and 35 inches).
And a split-finger change-up, averaging 84.1 mph, topping at 85.5, and 43% of them were in the strike zone. It moves 11 inches towards the RHB and drops 31 inches. League average is 11 and 34.
The release point on all the pitches is much the same. He gets more than average swing and miss (top of the league, in minimal innings) and a lot more ground balls (also top of the league) than the average pitcher.
He also gets more hard-hit balls against than most. And he walks more than most, but I’m expecting that, as he sees how much trouble hitters have hitting his pitches, he’ll walk fewer.
MLB Pipeline has Yesavage as the #12 prospect in the MLB
Yesavage is having a bit of a slow start to the spring. The team, very understandably, want to be careful with his arm. They would rather he be able to pitch near the end of the season (and hopefully playoffs) than pitch on opening day. He threw 35 pitches off a mound to some minor league hitters yesterday.
I do have some worries that his over the top delivery will not be as great over time. Roy Halladay, when he first came up, threw from over the top and he was great for his first in his first season but he was, I’m not sure the right way to put it, awful the next season. The team sent him back to A-ball, and re-jijjed his delivery. But Trey isn’t Doc
Steamer thinks he’s going to pitch in 37 games, 23 starts, 146 innings, with a 3.73 ERA, and a 2.2 fWAR. I’d bet strongly against him making 14 relief appearances, but I’ve been wrong before. I remember both times. We do have a lot of starting pitchers. One or two of them are going to be making relief appearances.
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