DUNEDIN, Fla. — Trey Yesavage knows well the toll pitching exacts on his body, and most of the different aches he feels afterwards can be worked through between starts until they fade away. A pinching sensation in the front of his right shoulder, as he reported to Toronto Blue Jays camp, however, was entirely unfamiliar.
“I got here, obviously I had to say something,” he said in an interview Thursday, shortly after manager John Schneider revealed that the rookie right-hander will open the season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. “Jumped on it as quick as we could.”
Doing so further slowed down the already slow build the Blue Jays had planned for the 22-year-old, who soared through five levels a year ago before pitching in six post-season games, five of them starts, including dominant outings versus the Yankees and Dodgers.
When he’ll be ready to rejoin the rotation isn’t certain, but Yesavage will still be in Toronto for opening day next Friday, even if he won’t be active for the festivities.
“It stinks, but it's part of the game. Faced with adversity, you've just got to keep moving forward,” he said. “I look forward to getting out of the gate and finally starting to play games and just be in front of that home crowd.”
Until then, Yesavage’s absence, combined with the stress fracture in Jose Berrios’ right elbow, seems to put Eric Lauer into the rotation out of the gate, with Schneider all but officially confirming that.
“He's got a good chance, yeah,” said the manager. “Just got to figure out exactly who is where and things like that and how they're feeling physically, all that kind of stuff. But that's why you build up everyone that you have available for that rotation spot.”
Lining up Lauer behind Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease and ahead of Cody Ponce – who allowed only one hit over 5.2 innings in Thursday’s 11-0 romp over the New York Yankees – and Max Scherzer makes some sense, as it would position Scherzer, Gausman and Cease to face the Los Angeles Dodgers when they visit April 6-8 in a rematch of last fall’s World Series.
As that plays out, the other spin-off effect of Yesavage beginning on the IL is that it opens up a bullpen spot, perhaps for a reliever that offers “a little bit of length,” said Schneider. “There are going to be some guys that we're going to ask to go multiple innings, and however that fits best come Monday, we'll figure that out.”
Connor Seabold, who’s on a minor-league deal but has impressed at camp, Chase Lee, who’s slated for an inning-plus behind Scherzer on Friday, Lazaro Estrada and Adam Macko, the hard-throwing lefty who pitched for Canada at the World Baseball Classic, and Yariel Rodriguez are multi-inning options.
While that plays out, Yesavage will be following a regimented plan put in place for him.
At the beginning of camp, he said he felt the pinching sensation as he pulled his arm back to throw and “a lot of exercises in the training room and the weight room” have him “feeling good now,” while the pain “is gone.”
“Really,” he added, “just taking our time with it and making sure I'm healthy.”
He threw 35 pitches in a simulated game on March 11 and threw another 35 pitches over two innings of a minor-league game on Monday, and “I was very happy with the way I felt,” said Yesavage. “Felt back to normal, per se, but still not there to keep going (for opening day). … Pitch shapes are great. I feel like the ball is coming out of my hand as good as I want it to. So it's just about building volume now.”
Yesavage is slated to get back up on a mound next Wednesday, with his upcoming steps being to keep “building up, building innings, getting the pitch count to a comfortable spot so I can be a starter.”
Ponce pounces: Cody Ponce prioritized locating in the zone and working ahead during his final Grapefruit League outing of the spring, and over 5.2 shutout innings Thursday, he did just that, especially with his fastball that averaged 94.5 m.p.h. He allowed only one hit with five strikeouts while throwing 65 pitches, reuniting with back-from-the-WBC Alejandro Kirk for a good day on the mound.
“Good to have Kirky behind the dish, so that way we can work on getting that moving forward into the season,” said Ponce. “We stuck to our game plan, which was just kind of filling up the zone and just attacking as much as we could."
Ponce got seven swinging strikes on his fastball, one on his cutter and five more with his splitter, which manager John Schneider identified as one of the things he liked most about the outing.
“He pitched today," said Schneider. “His first few outings, he was kind of feeling out his stuff, how it was working, how it was playing, and it was kind of compete mode today. Obviously, a little bit of a different lineup than he'll face in New York in the regular season. But I really like the way his pitches work together and the split-change carrying the zone.”
The Blue Jays want him to throw 80 pitches next week in some sort of simulated game, either in Dunedin or up in Toronto.
Lineup reunites: With everyone back in camp from the World Baseball Classic, the Blue Jays rolled out a potential opening-day lineup. As a reward, they got a grand slam from George Springer, a solo shot from Daulton Varsho off Ryan Weathers and a three-run shot from Andres Gimenez off reliever Cade Winquest.
“We were saying in the dugout, it was the first time in a long time, maybe all camp, where the guys were kind of getting after it a little bit and had a pretty good feel for what a regular-season lineup would look like,” said John Schneider. “Granted, it's spring training, but not a lot of these guys had seen (Weathers). He's got great stuff. Big arm. Good pick-up by them. But hearing the guys talk in between amongst themselves, them with (the hitting coaches), what to do and how to adjust, kind of brought you back to last year, and you have a little smile on your face. …
“It was just cool to kind of see the lineup roll out like that, and they feed off one another.”
Champion Andres: Andres Gimenez took batting practice in the Venezuela jersey he wore during Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the United States in the World Baseball Classic final.
“Pride that I got for my country” is why he wore it, he said. “We did something special, something important for my country there. They're enjoying it right now. You can see their social media, they are extremely happy, and it feels good to bring some happiness to the country.”
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