This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- We’re getting to the point of Spring Training where the big, broad ideas need to be whittled down into something more specific.
Yes, the Blue Jays have the luxury of excess starting pitching, but how can that actually be maximized? Yes, Trey Yesavage’s workload will be managed carefully this season, but what will that actually look like?
One week into March, we still haven’t seen Yesavage pitch in a game. He’s been throwing to hitters in Blue Jays camp, which is close enough to the same thing, but the 22-year-old is clearly being ramped up cautiously by design. Yesavage opened 2025 at Single-A Dunedin and ended his season pitching in the World Series with 139 2/3 innings under his belt. If the Blue Jays can get Yesavage back near that number in the 2026 regular season, leaving him something in the tank for another playoff run, that feels like the sweet spot here.
This will take different shapes as the season develops, but the most important factor in all of it is Yesavage’s approach. He’s all-in, which should make this easy.
“I know everybody in this organization has my best interests in mind,” Yesavage said. “They limited my pitch count last year and I was able to stay healthy the entire season. They’re the professionals at this and they’ve handled me well before, so I have all of my faith in them.”
The blueprint: Yesavage’s 2025
The Blue Jays nailed this a year ago. This player development group wanted to manage Yesavage’s workload in a way that could, if every single thing went right, leave him with something left in the tank for a stretch run. Well, everything went right.
Exactly how Yesavage was managed through each level of the Minor Leagues matters, too.
Look at Yesavage’s pitch counts from his starts at each level. You’re going to see plenty of numbers in the 55-to-80 range, which often landed Yesavage in the range of four-to-five innings, not six-plus. If this worked so well a year ago, you can expect to see some similar numbers in 2026:
Single-A Dunedin: 68, 55, 67, 76, 76, 71, 75
High-A Vancouver: 73, 73, 79, 72
Double-A New Hampshire: 68, 54, 75, 64, 52, 48, 68, 89
Triple-A Buffalo: 57, 83, 83, 54, 18, 34
Even in the postseason, Yesavage typically lived more in the range of 70 to 90 pitches, peaking at 105 in Game 5 of the World Series, when he really emptied the tank against the Dodgers. The Blue Jays don’t need to strain themselves to find the blueprint. It’s already right here in front of them.
This will be catnip for sports talk radio and we’ll get waves of the same question: Should John Schneider have lifted Yesavage after just 72 pitches last night? Some of these could look frustrating at the moment, but every conversation we have around this team needs to be framed with a World Series run in mind. The Blue Jays need Yesavage at his best in October, not April.
Tag-team: The Gage Stanifer model
To open 2025, the Blue Jays duct-taped Yesavage and Gage Stanifer together for their first 11 appearances, first in Dunedin and later in Vancouver. It wasn’t fair to hitters.
Yesavage was absolutely dominant and Stanifer, the Blue Jays’ No. 6 prospect, would be first out of the bullpen each time in a piggyback role.
“I don’t think we lost a game for the first [seven] games we pitched together,” Yesavage said.
In games Yesavage and Stanifer pitched together, their teams went 10-1 to open the season before Yesavage was bumped up to Double-A New Hampshire.
It would be much more difficult to run this strict piggyback arrangement in the big leagues, but it points us in the right direction. If Eric Lauer opens the season in the bullpen, he could be saved for one trip through the lineup following Yesavage on most days, then be made available for shorter outings in between. The same loose arrangement could apply to whoever wears that tag of “extra starter in the bullpen,” because it feels like there will always be at least one.
“Everybody in this clubhouse, all of the starting pitchers, they’re great guys and great teammates,” Yesavage said. “I’m excited to see how the season’s handled with all of these people.”
So is everyone else.