LOS ANGELES — “Put me up against two grizzly bears and I’m not afraid,” Trey Yesavage said at the MLB Draft in July 2024.
Put me up against a $148 million lineup twice and I’m not afraid – Trey Yesavage, probably, before facing the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup in either of his World Series starts.
The second-youngest pitcher to start in a World Series (22 years and 88 days for Game 1 last week), and a pitcher with poise beyond his years, he’s either too young to know any better or he was built for this.
Probably the latter.
But it begs the question: Who the heck is this new kid who made $57,204 in MLB money this season? Who is this dude who really might have spoiled the Dodgers’ plan to further “ruin” baseball with a second consecutive World Series title with their big, fat payroll?
Who is this newcomer who just shut down the Dodgers and led the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-1 victory in Game 5 to give them them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series before it heads back north?
Let me introduce you to the fellow you won’t soon forget. The one who Dodgers’ hitters might have nightmares about when this series is said and done.
Because someday, I’ll bet, we’ll all look back on Wednesday not so much as an abject failure by the best lineup money can buy, but as a coronation. A coming-out party. An official introduction to baseball’s next big thing.
Yesavage might not fear anything, but from now on opposing hitters will probably be very, very afraid of him.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander is from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Son of Cheryl and Dave Yesavage – perhaps you spotted them on TV going nuts Wednesday at Dodger Stadium watching their son shine, unfazed, on the biggest of stages? With his electric slider and splitter, he struck out a dozen hitters, more than any rookie pitcher in World Series history, including the former record-holder, Brooklyn Dodger Don Newcombe, who sat down 11 in Game 1 of the 1949 World Series.
Yesavage’s 35 strikeouts in the postseason are the most by a rookie pitcher in major league history.
Before he capital-A Arrived this postseason, he was one of the best starters in the country at East Carolina. He landed at No. 11 on MLB Pipeline’s pre-Draft rankings before the Blue Jays selected him No. 20 overall in the 2024 MLB Draft.
His meteoric ascent through the minor-league ranks this year – with pit stops at all four full-season levels, hitting Class-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, before making his major league debut on Sept. 15 at Tampa Bay – was steeper than the arm angle with which he delivers pitches. And that’s the highest arm slot of any right-hander in the playoffs this year.
On Wednesday, the young man mowed through the Dodgers’ spectacular but spectacularly slumping lineup, turning his fifth postseason start – and just his eighth major league start – into where-were-you-when baseball history.
The Dodgers couldn’t touch him. Yesavage notched a ridiculous 46.2 whiff%, recording 23 swings and misses – the most by a pitcher in a World Series game since pitch tracking became a thing in 2008.
Through just five innings, he had struck out every Dodger at least once – including twisting Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ resident regular history maker, into a pretzel at the plate.
Deadpanned Blue Jays manager John Schneider: “He was pretty good.”
Actually, seriously though, Schneider said: “Kind of blown away at what he did.”
Yeah, pretty good at blowing away the Dodgers too.
The Dodgers who knew what was at stake Wednesday and had plans to take advantage of the youngster who they had faced in their Game 1 defeat.
Before the game, first baseman Freddie Freeman told reporters, “we already faced Trey once, so hopefully we can have the same plan. I thought we did a pretty good job against him in Game 1 getting him out after four innings.”
Unfortunately for Freeman – who struck out three times – and the rest of the Dodgers, Yesavage had his own plans.
He also was relishing the chance to face them again.
“I’m able to collect my thoughts and see what adjustments I need to make between outing to outing,” he said. “So it almost makes it – I won’t say easier, but I have a better plan going into the game …”
And he had this other plan, too: “Walking from the bullpen to the dugout [before the game], I took a moment to look around the stadium, see all the fans I wanted to – I was hoping I would send ’em home upset.”
No moment too big, no opponent to vicious.