Trey Yesavage feeling ‘confident in myself’ as he rejoins Blue Jays rotation

TORONTO – The major-league clubhouse at the Player Development Complex empties in an instant when spring training ends and Trey Yesavage found the change jarring after the Toronto Blue Jays broke camp last month.

“It was like me, (Shane) Bieber and Bowden (Francis). Our lockers are right by each other,” he said Saturday. “It was dead out of nowhere. That was really weird.”

Back in the action with the rest of the Blue Jays now, Yesavage will rejoin the rotation on Tuesday, when he starts against the Boston Red Sox. His return shifts Eric Lauer to the bullpen, where he’ll provide a needed length option as soon as Sunday, with a roster move also needed before the 22-year-old takes the mound. 

The season debut is a long time coming for Yesavage, who reported to spring training with an impingement in his right shoulder, was through it about midway through camp and has been slowly building up since.

“I think I’ve handled it well,” he said. “My mindset was kind of like how I was in the minors, play so they have to bring you up here and whatnot, so just still having that competitive nature and being able to prove that I should be here. The toughest part is it’s kind of slow. I wish I could have been up here sooner.”

The Blue Jays, mired in a slow and injury-filled start to the season, do as well, even if the month lost will help in managing Yesavage’s workload. They had planned to find ways to constrain his innings anyway, but could certainly use the type of lift he provided when he joined the club last September and dominated in the post-season.

After his last rehab start, a 2.1-inning outing in which he threw 64 pitches, about 10 short of the team’s target, there was some debate about whether his next time out should be at triple-A Buffalo or the majors, “making sure that when we hit go, we don’t hit pause,” said manager John Schneider. But “he checked all the boxes that we had hoped. … Getting him here and get him a little adrenaline, getting him going, will be a good thing for him, good thing for us.”

Yesavage averaged 94.3 m.p.h. with his fastball and was up to 95.8 in that rehab start, allowing four runs, two earned, on two hits and four walks with two strikeouts, and felt like he’d definitively turned the corner, even if “based on the boxscore, I’d bet you wouldn’t guess it.”

“The first two innings, my stuff was sharp, exactly how I wanted it to be,” he explained. “I lost command in the third inning, but I thought the first two innings were exactly where I went in and allowed me to be confident in myself.”

Lukes to IL

As he announced that Nathan Lukes was going on the injured list with a strained left hamstring, John Schneider couldn’t help but quip that “it feels like anyone who’s playing good is not allowed to play anymore.”

Since finding some solutions for his vertigo in Phoenix last weekend, the outfielder had been on an 11-for-21 tear with six RBIs. His fourth double during that span, in the first inning Friday, was when he hurt himself, as he felt a twinge as he pushed off out of the batter’s box.

“Every step I took, it got worse,” said Lukes. “People were telling me to stop at first, but I don’t want to stop at first. I knew there was no way I could have stayed in the game. I never want to come out of the game, even if I’m slightly banged up, slightly injured. But this was only going to hurt the team if I tried to play through it.”

Initial estimates are that he could be back in two or three weeks, but for the time being, he’ll rest until the swelling abates. 

“Hopefully one day I wake up and it feels better and I can start doing some baseball activity stuff, but right now we just baby it, go day-to-day and whatever my body feels like it can do, we can do,” he said. “Ton of treatment, ton of rehab and get back.”

The Blue Jays selected outfielder Yohendrick Pinango from triple-A Buffalo to cover his absence.

Rotation shuffle

Dylan Cease and Patrick Corbin each threw five innings against the Los Angeles Angels earlier this week, but the difference in how they got through their outings led to a flip in the Blue Jays rotation.

Cease threw 110 pitches while striking out 12, crossing the 100-pitch threshold for the second straight start, while Corbin needed just 65 pitches in his ultra-efficient outing.

So, to give Cease another day of rest, he’s now pushed back to Monday’s series opener versus the Red Sox, with Corbin handling Sunday’s finale vs Cleveland.