Blue Jays reinstate Trey Yesavage for 2026 debut amid rotation injuries

Toronto’s latest rotation patch put Trey Yesavage back on the mound and sent Chase Lee back to Buffalo, a move that showed how thin the Blue Jays have become while injuries keep reshaping the staff. Yesavage was reinstated from the 15-day injured list on April 28 to start against the Boston Red Sox, and Toronto paired the activation with another shuffle by moving Eric Lauer from the rotation to the bullpen.

The Blue Jays have been forced to improvise around injuries to José Berríos, Shane Bieber, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis, and Yesavage’s return was treated as a calculated bet rather than a simple recall. John Schneider said the club believed the right-hander had checked every box and wanted to avoid a stop-and-start build-up once he was ready. That mattered because Yesavage, who missed the first 28 games with a right shoulder impingement, had just four rehab appearances, including three starts, split between Single-A Dunedin and Triple-A Buffalo.

His most recent rehab start came April 21, when he threw 64 pitches in 2.1 innings, short of the workload Toronto had hoped for. The club planned to manage him carefully early in his return, likely keeping him in the 80-85 pitch range as it protects the arm that carried him through 139 2/3 innings in 2025 across the minors, majors and postseason. For Toronto, that workload is the point: Yesavage is the club’s No. 1 prospect, a first-round pick from East Carolina in 2024, and the Blue Jays are betting his arm can stabilize a rotation that has been stretched by necessity.

The confidence comes from what Yesavage already did on the biggest stage. In the 2025 postseason, he made six appearances, five of them starts, went 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA and struck out 39 batters in 27 2/3 innings. His 12-strikeout performance in Game 5 of the World Series against the Dodgers turned him from a fast-rising arm into a legitimate rotation answer, even though he had not thrown a professional pitch before 2025.

Lee was the corresponding move, and Buffalo felt that one immediately. Recalled only the day before, he made his Blue Jays debut in Monday’s 5-0 loss to Boston, working 1.1 innings and allowing one earned run before Toronto optioned him back to Triple-A. The Bisons lost a fresh bullpen arm, but the major league club gained the opening it needed to put Yesavage back into the rotation and keep searching for stability.