Blue Jays farm report: Yesavage dominates with Dunedin

TORONTO – Players, coaches and player-development staff around the Toronto Blue Jays ask Trey Yesavage fairly often about pitching for East Carolina in the NCAA Regionals a mere 10 days after suffering a partially-collapsed lung.

“I’ve repeated that story probably 20 times since I’ve been here,” says the 21-year-old right-hander selected 20th overall last year.

For good reason – it’s a pretty wild tale.

Last May, the day after striking out seven over 5.2 innings against Rice, Yesavage went for a dry-needle treatment, a normal part of his recovery routine. One of the needles put into his scap muscle, around the shoulder, went too deep and hit the back of his lung. Three days later, as he struggled to breathe while trying to throw a bullpen, he was hospitalized. Ten days after discharge, he was back on the mound dominating against Wake Forest, allowing one run over 7.1 innings while striking out six, before East Carolina’s season came to an end.

“It was a roller-coaster of emotions, from going into the conference tournament on a high and then not feeling well, getting diagnosed, to going and pitching in a regional in front of a home crowd,” Yesavage recalled during an interview back in spring training. “I mean, it was crazy how fast everything changed. That’s just the way things happened. But getting to pitch one last time, when someone in the hospital told me I’m not going to pitch the rest of the season, was very special and I soaked it all in.”

How the entire episode impacted his stock in the draft is uncertain – at the MLB Draft Combine last June, every team asked him about it, prompting him to wonder, “Is this a problem or not?” – but the Blue Jays were all too happy to take him at No. 20 overall.

Shane Farrell, the club’s amateur scouting director at the time, said after making the pick that the partially-collapsed lung “didn’t really factor into the decision-making at all” because Yesavage had “no issues coming back from that.”

Now at low-A Dunedin, with a promotion to advanced-A Vancouver on the horizon, Yesavage is demonstrating why the Blue Jays thought so highly of him. Through five outings at low-A Dunedin so far, he’s struck out 36 batters over 23.1 innings, allowing eight runs, six earned, on 13 hits and eight walks.

More tellingly, he’s gotten whiffs on 70 of the 174 swings taken against him, or 40 per cent, and it’s three different pitches generating all those misses – a four-seam fastball sitting about 94 m.p.h., a changeup and a cutter that have alternated serving as his primary weapon. The whiff-rate on his changeup is a stupefying 61 per cent.

All of which is why GM Ross Atkins said Friday the Blue Jays “are confident that he is someone that could move quickly,” after explaining that a desire to get Yesavage consistent work and to avoid the rainouts and cold weather inherent to Aprils in Vancouver “was a factor” in initially assigning him to Dunedin.

Wherever he makes his next start, a steady buildup of Yesavage’s workload will be among his developmental priorities for the Blue Jays, as he logged 93.1 innings for the East Carolina Pirates last year and was shut down after a few side sessions once he signed.

The goal, obviously, is to get him through an entire professional season while acclimating him to the physical demands and higher level of competition. From spring training onwards, he noticed a difference “in the structure of the bullpens, building stamina in the arm along with like fine-tuning all my pitches,” while doing “conditioning every day, which I never did in college” after an initial five weeks in the fall.

“I’ve just been taking it slow and being very methodical with everything I’m doing,” he added, “just to make sure I am healthy come end of the season.”

Here’s a look elsewhere around the Blue Jays’ farm system:

Injury updates

Infielders Leo Jimenez and Josh Kasevich are both ramping up their work at the Player Development Complex (PDC) in Dunedin, Fla., although neither has a defined timeline for a return to action. Jimenez, who appeared in 63 games with the Blue Jays last season but was slated to open at triple-A Buffalo, had mono but recently started feeling better and resumed baseball activity. Kasevich suffered a stress reaction in his back toward the end of camp and is now in a hitting progression. … Lefty Adam Macko, who underwent Feb. 20 surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee, is throwing live batting practices at the PDC ahead of a looming rehab assignment, said Ross Atkins. … Three of the club’s top pitching prospects coming off reconstructive elbow surgeries – Ricky Tiedemann, Brandon Barriera and Landen Maroudis – are each progressing in their rehabs. Barriera, the 2022 first-rounder, and Maroudis,a fourth-rounder in 2023, are throwing multiple-inning bullpens in building up for “games within weeks,” said Atkins. Tiedemann, meanwhile, is currently throwing out to 120 feet.

Director visits

Eric Duncan, the club’s director of position player development, and Justin Lehr, the director of pitching, spent the past week in Toronto with the big-league club as part of an effort to ensure a uniformity of messaging up and down the organization.

Duncan, who spent the past two seasons as the organization’s field co-ordinator, said the aim was “to see all the processes that are being put in place, advance process, the daily work, to make sure we’re mirroring those processes as much as possible in (triple-A) Buffalo and (double-A) New Hampshire so that when players do come here, they are used to as many things as possible and the learning curve isn’t as drastic as we know it’s going to be.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the idea began back in spring training during conversations with David Bell, who joined the organization in November as a vice-president, baseball operations and assistant GM. Duncan and Lehr sat in on meetings and watched how everything from bullpens to game-planning was run so they can “take whatever they can to the affiliates,” said Schneider.

Part of that is a focus on using the same language from New Hampshire on up, in terms of pitch data, defensive plays, etc.

“We’ve also been pretty upfront by saying, hey, these are the guys we want to see pinch-hit when they’re not playing, we want to see these guys hit and run, we want to see these guys bunt or see them at a certain position,” added Schneider. “Language is very, very important not just from a tactical standpoint, but talking about how to win. That was a big thing. I think the industry as a whole, they get lost into skill-development. But keeping the message very consistent on how to win.”

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

Hard-hitting infielder Orlevis Martinez is recovering at the plate after a 2-for-36 start over his first 12 games, during which he struck out in 19 of his 40 plate appearances. In the 13 games since, he’s 14-for-48 with a homer and seven doubles, reducing his strikeouts to 15 in 53 plate appearances. The bat is his carrying tool, but his defensive work remains a key part of the equation. So far, he’s played 18 games at second base and three at third base, with Duncan noting that his defensive footwork and game preparation have been “getting better” with the help of infield coach Cesar Martin and Bisons manager Casey Candaele, who is “a wizard at everything he does … Orelvis is attacking the ball really well right now. He’s in the control. His game-awareness – where are we at in the game, game-situation, what’s happening, where do I need to be and when do I need to be there – is really, really improving.” … Outfielder Jonatan Clase, who came up as the 27th man for the doubleheader at the Yankees two weekends ago, and the versatile right-handed hitting Riley Tirotta, batting .267/.380/.483, are a couple of the hitters in Buffalo on the Blue Jays’ radar. “With Tirotta’s defence, it’s just making sure he can come up here and be on both sides of the ball,” said Ross Atkins. “And with Classe, it’s decision-making and that’s mostly on the defence and baserunning side, but also putting himself in the best positions offensively to drive the ball. Really encouraged by their starts.”

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Outfielder Yohendrick Pinango, part of the return from the Chicago Cubs for Nate Pearson last summer, is off to a .337/.436/.535 start with three homers, six doubles and a triple in 24 games. The 23-year-old reached double-A last season and struggled through his initial tour at the level, hitting .207/.290/.319 in 88 games between the two organizations. He’s sought to balance chasing power and his natural hitting abilities in recent seasons and may have found a sweet spot in the early going. … Infielder Cade Doughty, the 2022 second-rounder who finished last season on the injured list after reaching New Hampshire, rejoined the Fisher Cats last week and went 6-for-15 with two doubles in six games.

Advanced-A Vancouver Canadians

While Arjun Nimmala continues to be one of the most important development stories in the Blue Jays system, centre-fielder Victor Arias is also opening up some eyes. Through the first 23 games, the 21-year-old is batting .281/.373/.396 with a homer, six doubles, a triple and six stolen bases in seven tries. A left-handed hitter who stands 5-9 and 150 pounds, he “physically looks the part,” said Duncan. “Not scared of anything on the field, off the field. The dude is not afraid of any situation. And it shows up in his game. He plays aggressively, plays violent at times, in a good way. He’s a lot of fun to watch.” … Nimmala continues to roll this year, where he’s hitting .295/.374/.547 with six homers and six doubles. Perhaps more notable is that he’s climbed a level by cutting his strikeout rate, with only 20 strikeouts in 107 plate appearances. Last year, he struck out 113 times in 361 plate appearances at low-A Dunedin. Ross Atkins said Nimmala’s “intellect and his ability to use his brain to impact his baseball skills are the things that stand out to me.”

Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays

Dominating right alongside Yesavage in Dunedin is Khal Stephen, the 22-year-old right-hander selected in the second round last year. Though six starts, he’s struck out 36 in 29.2 innings, allowing only six runs on 22 hits and six walks. Like Yesavage, he was also shut down after being drafted by the Blue Jays last year, having logged 96 innings at Mississippi State, and is also getting consideration for a promotion to Vancouver. … Shortstop Manuel Beltre, the centrepiece of the Blue Jays’ 2021 international signing class, is batting .319/.421/.418 with 15 walks and 13 strikeouts through his first 23 games.

More from Sportsnet

Former Blue Jays pitcher Ross Stripling retires after nine MLB seasons

Blue Jays transfer Scherzer, Swanson to 60-day injured list