Dave Litman
The news wasn’t surprising on Thursday when it was announced that the Toronto Blue Jays would be placing top young starter Trey Yesavage on the injured list to begin the season. They’d been slow-playing him all spring. He reported to camp feeling something that just wasn’t right.
But with the announcement that he’s going on the IL to start the year with a “shoulder impingement”, it’s perfectly clear what the issue is.
Let’s all remember that Yesavage is still only 22. He came up as a rookie late last season, and got in only 14 regular-season innings before being thrust onto the biggest stage in baseball in the postseason. He was incredible in his 27.2 playoff innings, and wasn’t the least bit fazed by the bright lights of the World Series. But at 125 total innings pitched, that was about 30% more than he threw the year before in his last NCAA season.
So what happens now with the Blue Jays’ rotation? This news follows the word that Jose Berrios will also start on the IL, as he works through a stress fracture in his elbow. And we all know about Justin Bieber, who was also written out of the Opening Days plans long ago.
What does the Blue Jays’ five-man rotation look like now after Yesavage injury?
Thankfully, the Jays prepared themselves for this kind of rash of pitching injuries (as every MLB team should!). The late re-signing of Max Scherzer and the continued presence of swingman Eric Lauer means that Toronto can still roll out a rotation that looks like this:
- Kevin Gausman
- Dylan Cease
- Max Scherzer
- Cody Ponce
- Eric Lauer
So, let’s see: A two-time All-Star and recent AL Strikeout Champ on Opening Day. The newly-minted $210M man with five straight 200-K seasons is up next. That’s followed by a left-hander (Lauer) who acquitted himself perfectly fine in the rotation last season (3.77 ERA).
Then comes Cody Ponce. He’s returning to North America after absolutely dominating in Korea last season. He’s continued that in Spring Training. He allowed just one hit over 5.2 scoreless innings against the NY Yankees on Thursday, lowering his Grapefruit League ERA to a cool 0.66 over 13.2 innings.
And finally, the Jays complete their rotation with merely a three-time Cy Young winner.
Blue Jays impressive pitching depth can survive 3 starters on the IL
And as Jays beat writer Keegan Matheson said on TSN’s Overdrive, not many teams around baseball could survive losing three starters from their rotation as well as these Blue Jays can.
“This depth is really impressive. I remember we were talking a few weeks ago, ‘Where the heck is Max Scherzer going to pitch?’ Well, he’s going to pitch right here. These things work themselves out every damn time,” Matheson said. “If they had signed 20 starters, 15 of them would have gotten hurt. It just works out this way.”
As for Yesavage, he said after working on his shoulder all spring, he’s “feeling good now,” and the pain is gone. He’s still pitching, and, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, “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,’” concluded the young pitcher.
So, no panic at all at this point in the Toronto camp. The rotation should be in pretty good hands until all the walking wounded have returned. Then we’ll have another problem to worry about. But that whole “too many starters” dilemma can only be a good thing.
