Trey Yesavage strikes out six, allows four earned runs in most recent rehab appearance

Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage strikes out six, allows four earned runs in most recent rehab appearance

The Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation could be getting some reinforcements sooner rather than later.

On Thursday afternoon, Trey Yesavage made his second rehab start with the Dunedin Blue Jays. His first, coming last Friday, saw him go two and two-thirds innings pitched, allowing an earned run, a walk, and striking out three. Thankfully, his velocity was right around where it was last season.

This time around, Yesavage entered the game in the bottom of the third, as the first game of the doubleheader was to finish Tuesday’s suspended game. Leading off for the St. Lucie Mets was Tommy Pham, yes, that Tommy Pham, who hit a grounder that found a hole. Yesavage lost his next batter on a five-pitch walk, with all four balls being nowhere near the zone.

He allowed his first run as AJ Salgado hit a soft single off a 95 mph fastball, giving the Mets a 3-1 lead. Yesavage’s next batter, Simon Juan, struck out swinging, before a Met hit a single to load the bases. One run was cashed in thanks to a ground out, making it 4-1. Sam Biller hit an RBI single off a bloop single that Blaine Bullard nearly caught, scoring two more runs to make it 6-1 for the Mets. Yesavage got out of the inning by striking out Elian Peña.

From there, Yesavage settled down. In the bottom of the fourth, he struck out Branny De Oleo with a 83.2 mph splitter, got Pham to fly out, then struck out Julio Zayas with an 89.6 mph slider. The fifth saw Yesavage strikeout Salgado, freezing him with a well located splitter inside. Yesavage’s final batter, Juan, was also called out on strikes, watching a 94.3 mph catch the outside edge of the plate.

Overall, Yesavage finished his outing with a line of: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. In total, Yesavage threw 52 pitches, more than his 44 pitches in his most recent outing on April 3rd. Of the 52 pitches, 34 were strikes.

Trey Yesavage goes 2.2 IP with 6 K’s on 52 pitches in his second MLB Rehab outing!

Diving deeper into the stats, Yesavage generated a game-high 10 whiffs, with six of them coming on seven swings on his slider. All three of the swings on his splitter were a miss, while Yesavage generated just one whiff on 10 total swings with his fastball. Speaking of that fastball, it averaged 94.7 mph, right around where it did last season. The 22-year-old reached 96.1 mph with the heater, 90.5 mph with his slider, and 83.9 mph with his splitter.

Yesavage may have allowed four hits, but only two of them came on hard-hit balls. Pham’s lead-off single clocked in at 101.9 mph off the bat, while another single was 102.1 mph off the bat. The other two singles had an exit velocity of 80.5 mph and 80.0.

It’s unclear what the plan is for Yesavage going forward, and I’m sure we’ll figure out sometime in the next few days. At just over 50 pitches, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Yesavage get another rehab start or two to build back up to at least 80 pitches. That could be at the Single-A level, or perhaps even the Triple-A level.

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