DUNEDIN, Fla. — Trey Yesavage knows well the toll pitching exacts on his body and that most of the aches he feels afterward can be worked through between starts until they fade away.
A pitching sensation in the front of his right shoulder as he reported to Toronto Blue Jays camp, however, was entirely different.
“I got here, obviously I had to say something,” he said in an interview Thursday, shortly after manager John Schneider revealed that the rookie right-hander will open the season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. “Jumped on it as quick as we could.”
Doing so further slowed down the already slow build the Blue Jays had planned for the 22-year-old, who soared through five levels a year ago before pitching in six post-season games, five of them starts, including dominant outings versus the Yankees and Dodgers.
Yesavage felt the pinching as he pulled his arm back to throw and “a lot of exercises in the training room and the weight room” have him “feeling good now.”
The worrisome sensation that caused him to speak up “is gone now,” he added. “Really just taking our time with it and making sure I’m healthy.”
For now, that means following a meticulous plan set for him.
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He threw 35 pitches in a simulated game March 11 and threw another 35 pitches Monday over two innings of minor-league game, and “I was very happy with the way I felt,” said Yesavage. “Felt back to normal, per se, but still not there to keep going (for Opening Day).
His next game action is slated for next Wednesday, with the next steps being to keep “building up, building innings, getting the pitch count to a comfortable spot so I can be a starter.”
His absence out of the gate, combined with Jose Berrios’ stress fracture in his right elbow, puts Eric Lauer into the rotation out of the gate for the Blue Jays, though Schneider didn’t officially confirm that.
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“He’s got a good chance, yeah,” said the manager. “Just got to figure out exactly who is where and things like that and how they’re feeling physically, all that kind of stuff. But that’s why you build up everyone that you that you have available for that rotation spot.”
The spin-off effect is that it opens up a bullpen spot, perhaps for a reliever who offers “a little bit of length,” said Schneider. “There are going to be some guys that we’re going to ask to go multiple innings, and however that fits best come Monday, we’ll figure that out.”
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