PHILADELPHIA — Trey Yesavage immediately knew something was wrong when he felt a pinching sensation in his left knee after throwing a warmup pitch for the third inning Tuesday night. He tried another, struggled to plant his leg, conferred with Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider and assistant trainer Voon Chong, and after one final attempt, shook his head and walked off the field at Houston’s Daikin Park.
“It was weird, I'd never felt that before, so I knew something was bugging me,” Yesavage, who hadn’t sustained previous knee issues and isn’t sure what caused the sensation, said over the weekend. “Seasons of wear and tear on the body, freak things happen.”
An MRI the next day revealed a meniscus injury and since “surgery is a possibility,” the fate of Yesavage’s season will be decided Monday, when he visits with a specialist in Dallas. The rookie right-hander spent the weekend with his teammates in Philadelphia trying to not fret about the appointment, hoping that his last pitches of the season didn’t come during his two innings of work against the Astros.
“Whatever the whole situation is, it’s out of my control, but the best course of action moving forward is what I’d like to achieve,” he said. “I’d be pretty disappointed. Missed a month at the beginning of the year and it was a little rocky before the all-star break. Then just now, after the all-star break, making tweaks and just catching my stride. Surgery would suck if it comes to that. I'd like to be back out there as soon as possible.”
That, of course, depends on what Dr. Daniel Cooper, an orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon, deems as the best path forward for the 23-year-old, who shined on baseball’s grandest stages last October and spent this season learning to live in the grind.
A right shoulder impingement cost him nearly all of April and he’s made 18 starts since, posting a 3.65 ERA in 93.2 innings, allowing 61 hits and 46 walks with 91 strikeouts. Getting him across the finish line was one of the Blue Jays’ developmental goals for him, within the wider context of him learning the demands of a full big-league season after his wild five-level ascent one year ago.
To that end, he cited understanding the “day-to-day lifestyle as a big-league player” as his biggest learning in 2026.
“When I got up here last year, we were in a playoff hunt and then it was the post-season and whatnot, it wasn't like just the standard dog days of summer, come in here, get your work done and perform," he said.
Since rejoining the Blue Jays rotation April 28, Yesavage has had to refine his splitter, overcome command issues stemming from too much backward tilt in his delivery, and find ways, at times, to survive primarily with his fastball.
That’s a key progression the Blue Jays had encouraged, wanting him to understand that he can beat hitters in the zone with the offering and use it to get quicker outs that help keep his pitch count down. In four starts out of the all-star break, Yesavage struck out 22 in 18.2 innings and seemed to be building toward a strong finish.
“I've talked to Max (Scherzer), specifically, about certain ways to use the fastball,” he said. “It would be stupid for me to say how, but being able to live up in the zone, up and down. When I’m in the zone with the heater, the off-speed plays off of it so much better, gets swings and misses in the dirt and they take the off-speed in the zone for strikes.”
Schneider wasn’t ready to talk about Yesavage’s season in the past tense last week just yet, but did say, “he's learned how to be a major-league starter.”
“It's been much more normal for him than coming up late in the year in the post-season, and he’s had to adjust routines and had pitch on normal rest,” Schneider said. “He learned a lot and continued to show that he's more than just a one-trick pony, just striking a lot of guys out.”
The acquisitions of Jose Soriano, Jameson Taillon and Spencer Arrighetti, who is sorting through his next move after having a recurrence of his foot issues during a rehab outing Thursday, will help the Blue Jays cover off Yesavage’s absence in the short term.
But the top-end ability he showed in the post-season last year makes him an integral part of a projected 2027 rotation fronted by Dylan Cease and Soriano that the Blue Jays hope will be the cornerstone of a contender.
“Over the course of the year, my splitter has gotten better, but I would say since the all-star break, it's been exactly how I want it. Along with the slider, the slider's been good all year, been happy with that. And the heater just seems to be jumping out of my hand,” Yesavage said.
“I think I have done the best that I could have (this season). I leaned on the veterans a lot just for some guidance, especially last year and then coming in this year on the IL.”
Now, he's just hoping not to end the season where it began.
