TORONTO -- Trey Yesavage made a rehab start with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons Tuesday night, setting up the star right-hander to return just in time for the final week of the season.
Yesavage has been rehabbing from surgery he underwent earlier in August to repair the meniscus in his left knee, but has been ramping up quickly to help a rotation that desperately needs it.
Anthony Santander was also scheduled to play in Tuesday’s game, but he’s now dealing with some lower back discomfort. Santander, who’s trying to come back from shoulder surgery undergone earlier this year, has played in just two rehab games and has been out of the Bisons’ lineup since Friday, so it continues to look extremely challenging for him to get back in time to make an impact.
Yesavage has a shot, though. This is what you need to know:
How did Yesavage perform?
This didn’t go as planned.
Yesavage couldn’t get out of the first inning, allowing two runs (one earned) on a pair of hits and a walk, which ran his pitch count up to 34 before he could record the third out. The Blue Jays wisely chose to remove Yesavage instead of pushing him closer to 40 pitches in a single frame.
The Blue Jays had been hoping for 40-45 pitches, and while it’s still possible for Yesavage to throw a few more pitches off to the side, this isn’t what anyone had in mind. Yesavage’s four-seam fastball averaged 93.3 mph, which is just 1 mph south of his 2026 average in the big leagues and no cause for concern.
What’s next?
Question one: Do the Blue Jays feel that Tuesday was just a blip for the rehabbing Yesavage, and continue to trust that he’s ready to return to the big leagues?
If that’s a “yes,” then the final hurdle comes Wednesday, when the Blue Jays get a better sense for how Yesavage’s knee (and arm) have bounced back from his first real game action since Aug. 4. As long as that all checks out, though, the Blue Jays could use Yesavage in a bulk role their next trip through the rotation.
Manager John Schneider has also said that it will be more tempting to give Yesavage a “start” in this situation, meaning he’d pitch the first three or four innings, instead of coming in after an opener.
What are they saying?
When Schneider was looking ahead to Yesavage’s rehab start over the weekend, it was clear that he wouldn’t be picking apart the box score.
“Just feeling good physically,” Schneider said. “We want to see his stuff be normal. I don’t really care about results. We know what he can do here. Just make sure that he comes out of it feeling good physically. So far, so good with the bullpens and the lives, so that’s all I’m looking at.”
What else?
The Blue Jays originally planned to start Spencer Arrighetti on Friday in Texas, their opener against the Rangers, but we witnessed a midgame pivot. With the Blue Jays’ bullpen struggling in Tuesday’s 10-1 loss to the Tigers, Arrighetti came in and threw 52 pitches over two innings of relief.
Now, instead of pitching Dylan Cease on Saturday and José Soriano on Sunday, they’ve bumped the duo up a day, moving Cease to the opener and leaving Sunday TBA for now.
Taking this a step further, that rotation setup could leave Yesavage in line to pitch on the final day of the season against the Reds at home at Rogers Centre. Given how tight the AL Wild Card race is, that could be a deciding game for the Blue Jays.