Save for an appearance as a bullpen decoy in Game 4 of the American League Division Series, Trey Yesavage has been largely out of the public eye since his electric 11-strikeout performance in Game 2 of that ALDS.
That doesn’t mean the Toronto Blue Jays rookie and his family haven’t been subject to the darker side of sudden fame that increasingly haunts athletes in the spotlight.
Yesavage, who will start Game 2 of the AL Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners on Oct. 13, began his press conference in advance of that outing decrying the attacks and negativity on loved ones since no-hitting the New York Yankees for 5 ⅓ innings in just his fourth big league start.
‘Living in this world where there’s so many different opinions and feelings which results in a lot of hate, it’s sad to see that people close to me are being attacked for my performances on the field,’ Yesavage told reporters in Toronto before ALCS Game 1. ‘These people have done nothing to warrant negativity for my actions, whether that’s my parents, my brothers, my girlfriend, family. It’s just really sad.
‘I know I have the platform to address it, so I am. I hope that people can realize that those individuals have nothing to do with what happens on the field or whatnot.
‘If you have a problem, I’m a man; I can take whatever opinions anybody has about me or my life. So I just wanted to get that out there.’
Yesavage did not elaborate on the source of the hateful comments or the platforms in which they were received. It’s unlikely they came from Toronto fans, as Yesavage was a national hero in Canada after his Game 2 performance against the Yankees.
‘It wasn’t a lot of hate there, it’s just kind of saying, this is new for him, obviously, but I think him kind of protecting people that are close to him. I commend him for saying that,’ Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters after Yesavage’s comments. ‘It’s unfortunate that that’s a reality. I commend him for saying what he said and for backing up the people that love and support him.’
Yesavage is the second rookie pitcher in these playoffs subjected to comments they found objectionable. After dominating the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the AL wild card series, Yankees starter Cam Schlittler, a Massachusetts native, called out Red Sox fans for overly aggressive and inappropriate comments made before the game, apparently via social media.
‘There’s a line I think they crossed a little bit,’ Schlittler said Oct. 2. ‘Again, I’m a competitor and I’m going to go out there and make sure I shut them down. We’re aggressive back home and we’re going to try to get under people’s skins.
“They just picked the wrong guy to do it to. And the wrong team to do it to.”
Yesavage, 22, was selected 20th overall in the 2024 draft out of East Carolina. He pitched at every level of the Blue Jays’ system this year, beginning in low Class A Dunedin (Florida), and was summoned for his big league debut Sept. 15, making three regular season starts before the Blue Jays gave him the huge Game 2 ALDS assignment.
He was potentially available out of the bullpen in Game 4 at New York, walking to the bullpen mid-game, but both Schneider and Yesavage intimated that was a ruse, that Yesavage was pitching a Game 5 if it became necessary.
‘It was just a decoy,’ says Yesavage. ‘I was told to walk out there on the field in the fourth inning, which I did. But I thought it was funny just learning how this playoff baseball is kind of crazy and there’s a bunch of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that the average fan would have no idea about. I thought it was really cool.’
And also plenty of unfortunate byplay with fans that Yesavage and his loved ones could do without.