CHICAGO -- Last season, Trey Yesavage opened the season pitching in Single-A and ended up pitching in the World Series. Maybe he can pull it off again in 2026?
Yesavage’s rehab assignment lined up with him being the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays’ Opening Day starter on Friday night, a major step forward after a right shoulder impingement slowed him earlier in Spring Training.
Yesavage looked like himself, allowing one run on one hit and one walk over 2 2/3 innings. He struck out three and threw 44 pitches, a workload that fell right in line with what the Blue Jays had planned. The lone run actually came on an inside-the-park home run on a high fly ball off the right-field wall that took a big bounce back onto the grass.
Otherwise, Yesavage showed the Blue Jays everything they hoped to see in his first rehab outing.
Velocity check
Here’s where Yesavage’s velocity sat on Friday night compared it to his 2025 averages. Keep in mind that the adrenaline of a big league game typically helps a pitcher’s velocity, which we see every year in Spring Training.
Fastball: 94.1 mph (94.7 mph in 2025)
Splitter: 82.8 mph (84.1 mph in '25)
Slider: 87.9 mph (88.7 mph in '25)
Consider this closer to a Spring Training outing for Yesavage in several ways, as his pitch usage didn’t exactly mirror what you would expect to see from him in the big leagues this season. Yesavage threw just seven splitters and didn’t get a whiff on any of the three swings against it, but that’s already a proven out pitch against Major League hitters. The priority Friday was building his workload and monitoring how he bounces back over the weekend.
Timeline check
This was initially scheduled to be a sim game, but after speaking with Yesavage recently, the Blue Jays bumped it up to a Minor League rehab game. Treat that as good news, given how encouraging reports have been around Yesavage recently. The next step should be determined over the weekend.
“We’ll talk to him [Saturday] after the outing to see how he’s feeling,” Schneider said following the Blue Jays' 5-4 loss to the White Sox in Chicago. “Whether it’s one more there [in Dunedin] or shoot up to [Triple-A] Buffalo, we just want to see what his stuff looks like, really, and we’re not worried about the level. As long as the stuff is there, we’ll feel good about it.”
Right now, Yesavage is closest to returning among the injured starters, followed by José Berríos (right elbow stress fracture) and Shane Bieber (right elbow inflammation). Whether Yesavage needs one more rehab outing or a few more, that’s still to be determined.
In the meantime, the Blue Jays signed 36-year-old lefty Patrick Corbin to a one-year, $1 million deal. The move was announced just prior to Yesavage taking the mound in Dunedin. That gives the Blue Jays another layer of insurance, and given that they currently have just four healthy starters in Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer, it’s possible Corbin could step in for a start or two while Yesavage ramps up.