Blue Jays Rotation Takes Massive Hits With Yesavage Surgery and Taillon IL Stint
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It has been quite a season for last year's reserve world champions as the Toronto Blue Jays have had their season completely derailed by injuries, and while that might seem like a cop out, going into Monday night's outing with the Boston Red Sox, they had already used 33 different pitchers, unreal.
Now keep in mind that doesn't even include position players like Myles Straw and Tyler Heineman, who have thrown a pitch or two for the Jays this year. Keep in mind, it isn't guys like Joe-Shmo that have been unavailable, but almost everybody that has been a part of the starting rotation.
It is truly unfathomable to comprehend the players that have been unavailable this season at some point or another, and it becomes easier to see spelled out:
- Trey Yesavage
- Shane Bieber
- Max Scherzer
- Patrick Corbin
- Dylan Cease
- Cody Ponce
- Bowden Francis
Trey Yesavage had surgery on his meniscus per John Schneider. He’s considered week to week and could pitch again this season.
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) August 11, 2026
Then, at the trade deadline, the team acquired both Jameson Taillon and Spencer Arrighetti. Arrighetti was on the dreaded injured list, where he still remains, and now Taillon joins him, alongside Yesavage's second stint of this season.
Tuesday afternoon, the ball club announced that Taillon was going on the IL with forearm tendinitis. He exited his start Monday evening against the Red Sox after four scoreless innings, and only at 60 pitches, so everybody was alarmed.
The punches wouldn't stop there, though, as the team also casually mentioned that Yesavage had to have surgery on his knee to repair his meniscus after he exited after the completion of the second inning against the Houston Astros a week ago.
That being said, his season isn't necessarily over, and maybe, just maybe, the young sensation will get to pitch before the year is over.
What the Rotation Now Looks Like
Thank the baseball lord for the fact that AL Cy Young frontrunner Cease only missed one of his scheduled starts before he came back to the game, because he is the best that the team has to offer. So, pray to whoever to make sure this man stays healthy.
The Jays also feature Scherzer, who had more than a rocky start to his season but has been really solid in his last two outings. They need depth desperately, as the bullpen is severely overworked, and it won't be getting much easier anytime soon.
With the rotation now down to Scherzer, Bieber, Cease, and Jose Soriano, it won't be shocking to see Simeon Woods-Richardson slide into a starter's role. The next few weeks will be very interesting to see how John Schneider manages all of these injuries.
Toronto will be either within spitting distance of the bottom wild card or its season will be entirely lost- no in between.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.