Trey Yesavage faces concerning issues in Triple-A rehab start

Yesavage worked up to 71 pitches, with 42 strikes, across 4.1 innings in his Triple-A outing. For a pitcher building back up, that workload was the headline.

The command was not clean the whole way, and that matters. But this was not the kind of day where the Blue Jays needed perfect lines on a stat sheet.

They needed volume. They needed stuff. And they needed proof that Yesavage could hold his mix together deeper into a start.

That part showed up. His fastball mostly sat 93-95 mph, which is where Toronto wanted to see it at this stage of the rehab process.

The splitter also looked fine, and that pitch is a big part of the story here. When that offering is moving the right way, hitters have to respect more than just the heater.

The fastball had enough life to get through the zone, and the splitter showed the late tumble that can change an at-bat in a hurry.

A rehab line can get picked apart too easily. Four and one-third innings with uneven command is not flawless, but 71 pitches tells a much more useful story about where Yesavage is headed.

That pitch count says his arm handled a real starter's build. It says the Blue Jays were comfortable letting him keep working instead of pulling the plug at the first sign of trouble.

That matters because Toronto does not need another bullpen arm out of this process. The club needs a starter who can get closer to a full workload and give the staff another option.

Yesavage did not check every box in this outing, but he checked the big ones.

The only main concern from this outing was his velocity that was still down meaning despite the team saying this would likely be his final rehab outing, it looks like he might not be back just yet.

For a young arm coming back, that is often how progress looks. It is not always polished, and it is not always dominant, but it starts to resemble a normal day's work again.

Toronto still needs more updates before anyone talks about a full return plan. But this was the kind of rehab start that gives the organization a reason to keep pushing Yesavage forward, not slowing him down.