ROCHESTER — It was one of those late-season minor league baseball games between two teams not even in their Triple-A playoff hunt, one where the pregame jersey giveaway, exuberant mascots and brownie sundaes felt much more important to the proceedings than the specifics of what took place between the white lines.
But for the Toronto Blue Jays, and top prospect Trey Yesavage, the first three innings Wednesday night for the Buffalo Bison’s right-handed starting pitcher meant a whole heaping amount of importance toward what Canada’s team hopes is a long postseason run.
Yesavage, ranked No. 25 on MLB Pipeline’s top-100 prospect list, got the ball as a starter three days after appearing in relief. The Blue Jays are testing out a few different roles with him. He had most of the pitching staff with him out in the bullpen watching his warmups, and they all walked in together before Yesavage got to show off his stuff to the 8,000-plus in attendance.
This time, he was on either an innings or pitch count, but whichever it was, Yesavage made the most of it.
He went nine up, nine down, striking out four, throwing just 34 pitches to get through three innings against the Rochester Red Wings.
The fastball touched 95 miles per hour on the stadium radar gun. The breaking stuff had Rochester hitters flailing helplessly.
In a game where the Bison struck for five runs before Yesavage even took the mound, it felt like the Rochester half innings were over in a flash, and frankly, that’s because they were.
Without prior knowledge to the Blue Jays’ plans for Yesavage, it felt incongruous that Buffalo made a pitching change for the bottom of the fourth inning. But Yesavage had done all he was called upon to do.
It remains to be seen whether Toronto will bring him up to the majors. Because he isn’t up yet, the Blue Jays would actually have to file a petition to get him eligible for the postseason, according to SportsNet.
But there’s a bullpen in need of rescuing up there, and there’s a dominant pitching prospect down on the farm who looks perfectly fine throwing a few top-effort innings at a time.
By the end of Wednesday night’s game in Rochester, Yesavage’s outing was just a blip on the radar for the few fans who stuck it out in a 9-2 win for the visitors. But the front office folks in Toronto surely couldn’t think about much else: Is it time to bring Yesavage to the majors? Sure looked like it.
MORE: Mariners’ Leo Rivas joins 1882 Old Hoss Radbourn in MLB walk-off home run history
