The World Series begins Friday night in Toronto with no shortage of storylines.
Perhaps none more improbable than the rise of rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage, who will start for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 at Rogers Centre.
And who will be the first hitter Yesavage is likely to face? Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. ESPN’s Buster Olney joined TSN 1050 Toronto’s First Up with Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo Friday morning and said the matchup is exactly what makes the 2025 World Series so captivating.
“On one side it’s David and the other side it’s Goliath. You’ve got the guy who when he starts in the big leagues he was an afterthought. No one really was aware of him mid-season and he winds up throwing Game 1 of the World Series. My god, who would have imagined that?” Olney said.
“And who is he going up against? Merely the greatest player of all time. And it is going to be an absolutely fun World Series and it’s going to have no shortage of storylines throughout it.”
Yesavage’s 2025 season has been nothing short of remarkable. He was selected by the Blue Jays in the first-round of last year’s MLB Draft out of East Carolina University and made his professional debut this past April in Single-A. From there he shot through the Blue Jay farm system, debuting in High-A in May, Double-A in June and reached Triple-A by August, excelling at every level.
He was called up by the Blue Jays on Sept. 15 and made history by striking out 11 batters in his postseason debut against the New York Yankees earlier this month. Now, he’s set to start Game 1 on baseball’s biggest stage. That was a surprise – even to Olney.
“I thought for sure they would just, you know, stay with the same rotation order in part to protect Yesavage and keep him in friendly confines. Have him pitch Game 2 and then have him pitch Game 6. But they shake it up, and I assume because Kevin Gausman is in his mid-30s and he can use a little bit more rest and if you can structure your rotation in a way that can make that happen you go with that,” Olney explained.
“If you get to a Game 5, how will Yesavage respond to Dodger Stadium?”
The Jays haven’t officially announced their pitching plans beyond Game 1, but Gausman threw a side session Thursday, which lines him up to get the ball in Game 2. Assuming Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer each start one of Games 3 and 4, this would line Yesavage up to take the mound again in Game 5 in Dodger Stadium if necessary.
All three of the 22-year-old’s postseason starts this fall have come at home.
Yesavage had a 3.21 ERA in three starts during the regular season and owns a 4.20 mark in three additional playoff outings.
Olney pointed to Yesavage’s admission at media day Thursday that he has yet to shake off catcher Alejandro Kirk as an example as to how impressive his run has been given his limited experience.
“Crazy. I mean, absolutely crazy. The guy’s been in the big leagues for such a short period of time that we learned yesterday that he’s never shaken off his catcher,” Olney said.
“It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. He said that he tried to shake off Alejandro Kirk one time and Alejandro Kirk basically read him the riot act in his own catcher way by pushing for the same sign and Yesavage was like “okay” and went along with it.”
Another huge storyline entering the series is the health of Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette.
Bichette has not played since suffering a PCL injury in his left knee on Sept. 6. The Jays put him on their roster for the series Friday morning after Bichette told reporters following their Game 7 victory over the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series that he would be good to go against the Dodgers.
“I was not there to watch him run yesterday but I did see him run earlier in the [ALCS] series. And I’ve gotta say – look, he’s a two-time All-Star, he’s led his league in hits twice, he was going to do it a third time if he’d stayed healthy and hadn’t gotten that knee injury – he’s not running freely. So I think there’s some really hard choices to be made with him,” Olney said.
“If you start him then you immediately have the question of how is he going to be running the bases? Because that jumped out to me, seeing him move. I’m like man, he’s going to have a hard time turning corners. So if you start him and he gets on base and you have to leave him in there, him running on the bases is going to be an issue. And defensively for sure is going to be an issue moving laterally.”
Bichette took reps at second base on Thursday during the team’s workout, a position he has never played at the big-league level.
