All due respect to MLB's regular season, the month of October is when stars are truly born, when a player can show what he's truly capable of with the entire baseball world watching. And right now, in a World Series full of once and future MVPs, no star is shining brighter than Toronto Blue Jays rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage.
Yesavage already gave us a proper introduction earlier this month, when he struck out 11 batters in 5.1 no-hit innings against the New York Yankees in the ALDS. But he outdid himself in Game 5 of the Fall Classic on Friday night: Taking the ball with his team's title hopes on the line, the 22-year-old was simply sensational, fanning 12 without issuing a single walk over seven innings of one-run ball. He stuffed a lineup featuring Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and more into a trash can, and now the Jays are headed back to Canada only one win away from their first World Series in over 30 years.
Not bad for a guy who began the year at Single-A Dunedin. Toronto had high hopes for Yesavage when the team took him No. 20 overall in last year's MLB Draft. But it's safe to say that nobody dared dream this big, this fast — at the start of the season, the righty was only on the fringes of most top-100 lists, an interesting talent but with a way's still to go before he reached big-league stardom.
Now, though, the sky is seemingly the limit. Yesavage blew through the Minors with historic numbers this year, making it all the way to the Majors by September and settling in as the No. 26 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline. And now here he is, silencing Dodger Stadium with Sandy Koufax looking on ... and all the teams that passed on him some 15 months ago are kicking themselves. If we were to redo the 2024 draft today, safe to say Yesavage would go much higher than No. 20 overall. But just how much? Let's dive in.
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2024 MLB Draft redo: How high should Trey Yesavage climb?
Pick | Player | Position | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nick Kurtz | 1B/DH | Cleveland Guardians |
2 | Konnor Griffin | SS/OF | Cincinnati Reds |
3 | Chase Burns | RHP | Colorado Rockies |
4 | JJ Wetherholt | SS | Athletics |
5 | Trey Yesavage | RHP | Chicago White Sox |
6 | Carson Benge | OF | Kansas City Royals |
7 | Payton Tolle | LHP | St. Louis Cardinals |
8 | Jac Caglianone | 1B | Los Angeles Angels |
9 | Cam Smith | 3B/OF | Pittsburgh Pirates |
10 | Travis Bazzana | 2B | Washington Nationals |
Other notable players: Braden Montgomery, Ryan Sloan, Bryce Rainer, Charlie Condon, Kaelen Culpepper
It's awfully hard to deny Kurtz as the gem of this draft class right now, after he terrorized the league with one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory. Talk about his K rate, talk about his home park, talk about his sky-high BABIP or anything else. The fact remains that Kurtz absolutely scalds the ball with effortless power to all fields, and even after he'd burst onto the scene, big-league pitchers had a very hard time getting him out. You slug .619 with 36 homers a year after being drafted, you get the benefit of the doubt.
From there, though, the conversation gets pretty interesting. Most of the other options with meaningful MLB experience, guys like Jac Caglianone, Payton Tolle and Cam Smith, all went through the sorts of ups and downs you'd expect from players fast-tracked to the Majors. Their futures are still plenty bright, but they haven't proven what Yesavage has on the sport's biggest stage.
With one admittedly controversial exception. Chase Burns threw all of 1.2 innings in the postseason for the Cincinnati Reds this year. During the regular season, he posted a 4.57 and 1.315 WHIP across 13 appearances (eight starts). On the surface, at least, you'd give the edge to Yesavage. And yet ... watch Burns pitch and you'll forget about all those numbers in a hurry.
Chase Burns, 9th and 10th Ks.
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 9, 2025
Dude is a stud. pic.twitter.com/jAGd0wMqee
Burns struck out 67 batters in his first 43.1 Major League innings, a preposterous number for anyone let alone a rookie. His chase and whiff rates are off the charts good; if the goal of a pitcher is to miss bats, few do it better than the 22-year-old righty. And both the quality of his stuff and his 2.65 FIP and 3.47 expected ERA suggest he was a bit unlucky in terms of results this year. Yesavage is spectacular, and the margins here are painfully thin; in the end, though, I'd take Burns' arsenal and his future just barely.
That's about it in terms of current big-leaguers from the '24 class, though. Yesavage sure looks like a frontline starter for years to come, even if he'll need to fine-tune his command and continue refining his slider in order to take off and become a Cy Young candidate. I've only got two more prospects ahead of him here, and neither are insults: Konnor Griffin is the No. 1 prospect in baseball right now, a legitimate five-tool stud with 30/30 upside to go with excellent defense at either shortstop or center field or even both. That's the sort of ceiling that doesn't come around very often, and gives him the nod in this redraft for me.