Trey Yesavage knew something was wrong the moment he felt a pinching sensation in his left knee throwing a warmup pitch before the third inning Tuesday night in Houston.
He tried another pitch, struggled to plant his leg, conferred with John Schneider and assistant trainer Voon Chong, and after one final attempt, shook his head and walked off the field.
"It was weird, I'd never felt that before, so I knew something was bugging me," Yesavage said over the weekend. "Seasons of wear and tear on the body, freak things happen."
An MRI the next day revealed a meniscus injury, and his season's fate will be decided Monday when he visits a specialist in Dallas.
"Whatever the whole situation is, it's out of my control, but the best course of action moving forward is what I'd like to achieve," Yesavage said. "I'd be pretty disappointed. Missed a month at the beginning of the year and it was a little rocky before the all-star break. Then just now, after the all-star break, making tweaks and just catching my stride. Surgery would suck if it comes to that."
Why this season became a real education for him
A right shoulder impingement cost him nearly all of April, and he's made 18 starts since, posting a 3.65 ERA over 93.2 innings with 91 strikeouts.
He described understanding the "day-to-day lifestyle as a big-league player" as his biggest lesson this year, a real contrast from his playoff debut last October.
"When I got up here last year, we were in a playoff hunt and then it was the post-season," he said. "It wasn't like just the standard dog days of summer, come in here, get your work done and perform."
Since rejoining the rotation in late April, he's refined his splitter and worked through command issues tied to too much backward tilt in his delivery, leaning more on his fastball to keep pitch counts down.
In four starts after the All-Star break, he struck out 22 over 18.2 innings, building real momentum before the injury hit.
"I've talked to Max Scherzer specifically about certain ways to use the fastball," Yesavage said. "Being able to live up in the zone, up and down, when I'm in the zone with the heater, the off-speed plays off of it so much better."
Schneider praised his growth directly.
"He's learned how to be a major-league starter," Schneider said. "He learned a lot and continued to show that he's more than just a one-trick pony."
Toronto's additions of Jose Soriano, Jameson Taillon and Spencer Arrighetti, who is himself sorting through a recurrence of his own foot issue, will help cover Yesavage's absence short term. But his postseason ceiling still makes him central to a 2027 rotation the Blue Jays hope to build around Dylan Cease and Soriano.
"I think I have done the best that I could have this season," Yesavage said. "Now I'm just hoping not to end the season where it began."
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