Blue Jays Set to Promote Pair of Dominant Young Pitchers to Vancouver

Toronto Blue Jays finally appear poised to promote two of their top Class-A pitchers to their High-A affiliate.

Aug 14, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The Toronto Blue Jays logo during batting practice against the Cleveland Guardians at Rogers Centre. | Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

The Toronto Blue Jays are poised to break up the rotation at Class A Dunedin — and that’s a good thing.

Per MLB.com's Keegan Matheson, the Blue Jays are set to promote two pitchers to High-A Vancouver, Top 100 prospect Trey Yesavage and Gage Stanifer.

Yesavage just cracked Baseball America’s Top 100 at No. 98 while he is ranked No. 71 in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100. Stanifer is not ranked in either Top 100.

Both have spent the past six weeks dominating Florida State League hitters, who will no doubt be happy to hear the pair are leaving.

About Trey Yesavage and Gage Stanifer

Yesavage and Stanifer went different routes in the organization.

Yesavage was the No. 20 overall selection last July out of East Carolina, where he was one of college baseball’s top pitchers. Stanifer was a 19th-round pick in 2022 out of Westfield, Ind., and opted to skip college baseball to start his pro career.

What they have in common is their age — they’re both 21 years old — and that they’ve been nearly unhittable so far this season.

Yesavage, a right-hander, has pitched like a polished collegiate. At ECU last season he went 11-1 in 15 starts with a 2.02 ERA. He also struck out 145 and walked 32 in 93.1 innings. He won the AAC’s pitching triple crown, leading the conference in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

In seven starts at Dunedin, he went 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA. He struck out 55 and walked eight in 33.1 innings. He’s allowed just 19 hits and nine earned runs and held batters to a .162 average.

Baseball America reported in its updated Top 100 coverage that the Blue Jays started Yesavage at Dunedin not due to skill but due to the desire to keep him out of the cold in Vancouver in April.

Last month he earned Florida State League pitcher of the week honors after he threw six shutout innings against the Clearwater Threshers.

Stanifer is in his third pro season and his first two, statistically, were forgettable. He combined to go 4-9 with an ERA over 6.00 in the Florida Complex League in 2023 and with Dunedin in 2024.

But this season he’s taken a huge step forward.

In seven games, all in relief, he is 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA. He has 38 strikeouts and 12 walks in 26 innings. Batters are hitting just .112 against him. His lowest opponent batting average in either of his first two seasons was .252.