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Trey Yesavage (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
If the Blue Jays win one of the next two games to claim their first World Series title since 1993, there will be many crucial decisions that led to winning it all.
One of the most important will be the choice to draft East Carolina ace Trey Yesavage with the 20th pick in the 2024 MLB draft.
Yesavage, who struck out 12 Dodgers while allowing just three hits, no walks and one run in Toronto’s Game 5 win on Wednesday night, was the fourth college pitcher off the board last summer. But considering what heâ€s already accomplished in his brief pro career, the trio of arms drafted ahead of him—Chase Burns, Hagen Smith and Jurrangelo Cijntje—have a lot of catching up to do.
As crucial as it was for the Blue Jays that Yesavage fell to their pick, perhaps even more important was the organization’s plan to slowly build up his innings over the course of the 2025 MiLB season to ensure he’d be both ready and fresh enough to help the big league club come October. Yesavage didnâ€t throw 20 innings in a month until August, and he logged just 20.1 in September (14 of which came with the Blue Jays). Heâ€s thrown more innings this month than he threw at any stretch in the regular season.
Yesavage is in the odd situation of having now thrown more playoff innings (26) than MLB regular season innings (12). Heâ€s 3-1, 3.46 this postseason for the Blue Jays, and heâ€s fresh off a completely dominating the Dodgers’ vaunted lined to help put Toronto just one win away from the championship.
HISTORIC PERFORMANCE BY TREY YESAVAGE 🔥
7 IP
3 H
1 ER
0 BB
12 KHe has set a new record for the MOST strikeouts by a rookie in a World Series game.
(🎥@TalkinBaseball_ )
pic.twitter.com/NyLYUFX4Jl— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) October 30, 2025
What Yesavage has done is unlike anything seen in MLB history. His 12 strikeouts were the most in a World Series game by a rookie.
And while it might be foolhardy to think we’ll see anything like this unique development in the future, professional sports are often filled with copycats. Thanks to his wild success, Yesavage is now a trend-setter who poses an intriguing question: Which 2025 MLB draftees could do their best approximation of his path in 2026?
Here are three candidates who could make a big impact come next year.
Kade Anderson, LHP, Mariners
Rarely does a team on its way to the postseason get a chance to pick the College World Series†Most Outstanding Player, but the MLB Draft lottery has led to some remarkable surprises. The Mariners narrowly missed the playoffs in 2024, finishing 85-77. They were statistically slated to pick 17th in the 2025 draft, but the ping pong balls bounced their way, and they ended up with the third-overall pick, giving them a chance to land a top-tier talent.
Anderson was the ace of the LSU staff as the team won its second CWS title in three years. The 20-year-old lefthander went 12-1, 3.18 while leading the country with 180 strikeouts. And since he threw 119 innings in LSUâ€s run to the title, heâ€s more stretched out than most college pitchers.
Kade Anderson has thrown 16 innings on college baseball’s biggest stage.
He has 17 strikeouts to just one run.
The @LSUbaseball star pitched like the best pitcher in college baseball last night â¤µï¸ pic.twitter.com/EaF4G2TpHa
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) June 22, 2025
The Mariners have a very deep starting rotation, which played a massive role in the team getting to the ALCS. But the clubâ€s starters seemed somewhat worn out by mid October, and Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert all posted ERAs above 7.00 in the ALCS. The Mariners donâ€t need Anderson on the Opening Day roster, but if he can be developed like Yesavage was in 2025, he could provide an excellent end of season boost, especially if the Mariners can help him add a bit more velocity.
Anderson was generally sitting 92-95 mph in 2025, but he did touch 97. The Mariners are one of the best organizations in baseball at helping pitchers clean up deliveries and add velocity (see Kirby as a perfect example). If they can do that with Anderson, heâ€s the best bet of the 2025 draft to make a late-season impact.
Jamie Arnold, LHP, Athletics
The Aâ€s have been one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to promoting prospects. Jacob Wilson reached the majors a year after he was drafted, and then Nick Kurtz joined the big league club in late April. He immediately became the teamâ€s best slugger, and was named Baseball Americaâ€s 2025 Rookie of the Year.
But Kurtz also provides a lesson for the Aâ€s: As aggressive as they were, they could have been even more aggressive. Kurtz showed signs in spring training that he may be MLB ready, and itâ€s hard to say that less than a month in Las Vegas was vital to his development. If the team had placed him on the Opening Day roster, they would assuredly have landed the club a PPI draft pick for his impending AL Rookie of the Year award.
That doesnâ€t mean that Arnold should make the Athletics’ Opening Day roster, but it does help set the stage for the team to be aggressive once again.
Jamie Arnold does it all.
The @FSUBaseball star has a two-seam fastball that…
– Touches 97
– Has an extremely short release height
– Gets great horizontal movementThere’s a reason he might be the first arm off the board 👀 pic.twitter.com/E4sTEVDjrb
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) January 22, 2025
While Arnold doesnâ€t have Yesavageâ€s overwhelming stuff, he is an extremely polished pitcher, and one with a 100-plus inning college season on his resume. If the Aâ€s second-half surge—they had a 41-34 record from July 1 on—is the foundational step of a potential wild card team, Arnold would make sense as a potential playoff starter.
Kyson Witherspoon, RHP, Red Sox
On pure present stuff, Witherspoon stands out more than Anderson or Arnold. He can touch 99 mph with his fastball, and he sat 95-97 at Oklahoma in 2025. He has a bit less of a track record of success, but the trend lines were all extremely positive for the 21-year-old righthander. He showed significantly improved control in 2025, and heâ€s developed his slider and cutter to the point where either could end up as a plus pitch.
The Red Soxâ€s pitching development has shown that it can help pitchers develop velocity and stuff in pro ball, as Payton Tolle and Connelly Early demonstrated in 2025. And Witherspoon is starting at a higher level of present stuff than either of them had when they entered pro ball.
Witherspoon didn’t top 100 innings in a college season, so the Red Sox will have to be careful with how they use him if heâ€s going to still be fresh and MLB-ready come September. But he does have the arsenal to provide a late-season boost.
Some other first-rounders who could follow in Yesavage’s footsteps next season are Cardinals lefthander Liam Doyle and Angels righthander Tyler Bremner. The holdup, however, is that the Angels havenâ€t posted a winning record since 2015, and the Cardinals seem inclined to rebuild for one more season, which makes postseason runs for either team less likely than the candidates listed above.
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