色色啦

“It’s insane,” the 22-year-old from Boyertown, Pa. said in the Jays dugout at the Rogers Centre before Sunday’s 11-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles. “I’ve always dreamed about this and it’s finally come true.”

Finally. After almost a whole year in the minor leagues.

Yesavage didn’t pitch last year after being drafted 鈥� having聽gone 11-1 with a 2.03 ERA聽in 93 innings for his college team, the East Carolina Pirates. In March, the fireballing right-hander announced his presence with authority by聽striking out the side in the second inning of his first game as a professional, at the Spring Breakout聽against the聽Minnesota Twins’ top prospects.

He began the season with the low-A Dunedin Blue Jays, then moved up to the high-A Vancouver聽Canadians, Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats and Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.

When he is officially added Monday, the Jays will be the fifth team Yesavage has suited up with in 2025.

“It’s hard to jump five levels in a season,”聽Jays manager John Schneider said before Sunday’s game. “It’s pretty unheard of in the game.”

But Yesavage has earned it.听

In 98 innings across four minor-league stops, the rookie allowed just 54 hits and struck out a whopping 160. Opposing hitters managed just a .158 batting average and .535 OPS. Those numbers are ridiculous.

“When you look at his stuff compared to what you see in the big leagues, you feel like it’s on par to come in and get the job done,” said Schneider. “There’s swing-and-miss with the slider, swing-and-miss with the split, swing-and-miss with the fastball. It’s a very unique delivery, very unique angle at which the ball is being delivered.”

Yesavage stands six-foot-four, but that unique delivery聽鈥� almost straight over the top 鈥斅爉akes it look to the hitter like the ball is coming from a seven-footer.

Bisons manager Casey Candaele delivered the news Saturday afternoon by offering the kid a choice.

“I got pulled into the manager’s office,” Yesavage said with a smile. “He gave me the option of shutting down (for the season) or coming up here, and I thought it’d be a better decision to come up here and pitch for the Blue Jays.

“I was very emotional at first, and then after that I was almost numb. I didn’t know how to feel. It was a whirlwind of emotions.”

It hasn’t been a completely smooth road. He has issued 41 walks in those 98 innings, an average of 3.8 per nine that would be the worst among Jays starters.

In adding Yesavage for one start or more 鈥� Schneider said there is no innings limit on the young righty 鈥斅爐he Jays passed over left-hander Eric Lauer, whose 3.35 ERA would be the rotation’s best. Lauer was moved to the bullpen permanently on Sept. 1聽when the Jays decided to go back to a five-man rotation.

”(Lauer) moving to the bullpen was a matter of ... how can we build the 14 (pitcher) puzzle the best, we feel, equipped to win major-league games?” said Schneider. “Sometimes it’s at the expense of somebody, and it makes it a little bit easier to swallow when you know you’re not being put in the bullpen because of performance. But at the same time, it probably leads to some questions from a person, a human, so allowing him to vent those feelings to me and me saying exactly what I’m saying ... right now to him and being transparent, I think, was important.”

Lauer was the youngest starter at 30. That distinction now falls to the new kid.

Yesavage, who issued 17 walks over 13 2/3 innings combined in his first starts at each new level, will try to shut out the whirlwind when he climbs the mound at the Rays’ temporary home, Steinbrenner Field.

“I like to focus on my breathing,” said Yesavage. “Just get my breath in a good place and slow the heart rate a little bit and go from there ... I would say there’s not much pressure at all. I mean, I’m still playing a children’s game for a living. There are five-year-olds that play this game.”

His parents, Dave and Sheryl, brothers Cole and Chase and girlfriend Taylor will be there watching as Yesavage’s dream comes true.