Dodgers and Blue Jays talk about what makes Shohei Ohtani a special player
USA TODAY Sports interviewed members of the Dodgers and Blue Jays ahead of the World Series to discuss Shohi Ohtani’s unique talent.
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LOS ANGELES — Trey Yesavage gave the world of baseball a great little memory. It means that something special, very historic, very dominant, can remain secret.
Don’t get me wrong. Word is currently released.
Tens of millions of fans from Canada to Tokyo to Sunset Boulevard now know a lot about Yesavage, about the 22-year-old’s crazy arm angles and audacious splitter, his preternatural calm and this historic postseason run that brought the Toronto Blue Jays to the brink of winning the World Series.
Millions more learned that on Oct. 29, when Yesavage entered Dodger Stadium and brought a lineup packed with Hall of Famers, defending World Series champions and more than 52,000 fans to their knees with a breathtaking performance in Game 5 of the World Series.
He struck out 12 batters in seven innings, holding greats Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hitless in 11 at bats, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-1 victory over the Dodgers and one win away from winning the World Series for the first time since 1993.
The Blue Jays can win it all with a win in Game 6 or 7 this weekend in Canada.
And surprisingly, the name of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., perhaps the most important player in the team’s playoff push, was little more than a rumor among his veteran teammates a few months ago.
This is what happens when you don’t get invited to major league camp. When he was drafted at least partially on spec, as a collapsed lung ruined nearly all of his playing time at East Carolina. And when even a senior college draft prospect makes his first professional start in lower Class A Dunedin, the Blue Jays’ Florida training facility there begins a systematic process of separating the potentials from the potentials.
However, there is one man who foresaw this happening.
Most likely, Yesavage won’t climb four rungs up the organizational ladder and reach the big leagues in September. It’s also not like he became a stealth No. 2 starter in the playoffs, posting a whopping 39 strikeouts in 26 innings, breaking the postseason record for a rookie.
But when center fielder Dalton Varsho began rehabbing in Dunedin to recover from rotator cuff surgery, he realized that.
No, it wasn’t like Game 5 of the World Series. The opponent on April 19 was the Lakeland Flying Tigers, not the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the top of the lineup consisted of Hadin, Montilla, and Fana instead of Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman.
But things are things. And a man is a man. And Yesavage was definitely both.
“Right away, I knew he was different,” said Varsho, who closely watched Yesavage’s Game 5 dominance from his center field seat. “But the way he carries himself, his mentality. He’s just one of those kids you rarely meet.
“And you can tell he’s different from the beginning.”
Yet despite ubiquitous prospect rankings, live streaming and advanced pitching data, for most Blue Jays, Yesavage’s accomplishments were little more than bits of information floating around on amateur radio.
Max Scherzer, the Blue Jays’ 41-year-old starter, knew that name. Around the middle of the season, I heard that he was “striking out everyone in the minors.” As veterans hungry for late-season additions often believe, Yesavage could be trade deadline material.
Chris Bassitt, Scherzer’s partner in Toronto’s rotation, knew the club drafted Yesavage No. 20.th We pulled out of East Carolina altogether a year ago. I did not meet him in spring training – the boy had not yet been invited to the national team camp. And like most 36-year-old veterans, they were skeptical to begin with.
“You’re in the minor leagues until you’re not in the minor leagues,” Bassitt said. “So how do major league hitters approach you?”
And that’s when the puzzle started to come together. Because major league hitters looked downright stupid against him.
uptown funk
Yesavage made his debut against the Tampa Bay Rays on September 15, started three regular season games, and began to arch his eyebrows.
The item was genuine. And with Scherzer and Bassitt recovering from injuries, the Blue Jays figured the kid could at least partially hold the fort, in part because of the inexperience of his opponents.
Then came October 5th, Game 2 of the American League Division Series, and the moment that perhaps changed the Toronto franchise forever occurred.
“When you see the MVP and the top guys in the league swinging at his stuff, that’s a really positive sign,” said closer Jeff Hoffman, who pitched Game 5 with nine scoreless innings.
“If your stuff isn’t real, there’s no way they’re going to look at you like that. He had to see it’s real. You’re playing against the Yankees, and they’re still swinging like hell.”
And when Yesavage struck out seven of the Yankees’ first 10 pitchers, the Rogers Center erupted. This was real.
But in the Blue Jays’ dugout, Shane Bieber had to take one more look around the lineup to see if he could believe what he was seeing. Beaver, a former Cy Young Award winner who saved the Blue Jays by winning Game 4 of the World Series, knew that the Aaron Judges and Cody Bellinger of the world could look foolish. Maybe once.
“There’s an element of funk to him,” Bieber says. “Although arm angles and pitch repertoires are different, seeing how experienced big league hitters adapt from one at-bat to another is a very good indicator of how your players are playing in specific situations on a day-to-day basis.
“Having a Yankees-like batting lineup and the swings he induced definitely gave our club confidence.”
That day, Yesavage pitched in the fourth inning and struck out Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice. The Blue Jays had an ace.
24 days later, here’s another perennial MVP, Ohtani, taking such a stupid swing against Yesavage’s splitter in the third inning that his helmet flew off.
And Max Muncy, blessed with one of the best batting eyes and plate discipline skills of his time, took three steps to first base before being told to “come back,” and catcher Alejandro Kirk kept his full-count slider just below the strike zone.
He punched out both Hernandez, Teoscar, and Kiké. Spot starter Alex Cole hit a slider in the dirt that gave the first base umpire enough to punch out.
He struck out everything: 12 strikeouts in total, only 11 of them.th This is the first such feat in history and the first since Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez beat the New York Mets with 12 men in 2000.
“I think he was extremely convicted tonight,” Bieber said. “I’ve been through most of his starts. Give credit where credit is due. Kirkie had an unbelievable game tonight. He caught the ball very well. He got that low ball, he got that high ball for a trey.”
“For guys coming from that arm angle, getting that perimeter pitch is the most important thing.”
“He understands that.”
Now, Yesavage will likely pitch for the last time in 2025. Sure, it’s possible the Dodgers win Game 6 and flip Game 7, and maybe manager John Schneider calls for one or two outs from this kid.
But the postseason line will likely be fixed: 39 strikeouts in 26 innings, 1.04 WHIP, .187 batting average.
And, absurdly, he has played in five games in the playoffs, two more than he has ever pitched in the regular season.
In a clubhouse full of talented superstars, it’s become something of a joke that Yesavage has barely made a dent in the major leagues. That’s the lowest pro-rated amount for the two weeks he was awake.
Still, the Blue Jays will try to make sure his playoff share is fair.
“So this playoff payday is always going to be great,” Yesavage said.
All kidding aside, you can’t underestimate the symbiotic relationship between the Blue Jays’ veteran (and often salty) pitching staff and a rookie who will still be a rookie through 2026.
Veterans laugh at his occasional rookie nonchalance. The kid will appreciate it and reward them with an icy performance on the mound.
“They gave me the best care I could ever ask for,” Yesavage says. “So when these other rookies come up, I’m going to remember how I was treated when I got here.
“As for the settling part, I don’t know, but I have to thank my parents.”
Maybe it’s the water in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Whether by nature, nurture or otherwise, the Blue Jays don’t hesitate to throw around the metaphor that they “built something different” around Yesavage.
Bassit has been through a lot in his 11-year career. He recognizes that Dodger Stadium is not a typical environment. The sound system is roaring, there’s an MVP in every crevice of the lineup, and if you look hard enough you might see Magic Johnson, Jason Bateman or Sandy Koufax out of the corner of your eye.
Still, Yesavage stood up to all of it.
“He’s completely calm, which is crazy for his young age,” Bassitt said. “Hats off to the guys who coached him, the guys who raised him because he’s very, very calm under pressure.”
And Bassit rejects the idea that Yesavage is simply too young or inexperienced to understand what he’s doing.
“He’s pretty smart. He gets it,” he says.
“That he walks into this place with absolute confidence? He comes here and all of a sudden he’s like, wow, wow.”
In an era when starting pitchers in the World Series were encouraged to hit five consecutive innings, Yesavage did not let go of the ball until the end of the seventh inning. The last time he did it was also in his final college start, a 7 1/2-inning gut check against Wake Forest in the NCAA regional tournament, when Yesavage had just recovered enough from a collapsed lung to take the post.
Indeed, the Demon Deacons’ lineup included three future first-round picks, including slam-dunk AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz. Just over a year later, under very different circumstances, he pitched seven more innings.
Need to mention again: Ohtani, Betts, Freeman. The defending champion, aiming for his third title in six years, was pushed to the brink by the 22-year-old.
“When it’s on, he can make anyone in the game look stupid,” Scherzer says.
“He went out tonight and really showed it.”
And now we don’t need second-hand reporting to talk about that kid beating wannabes in Dunedin or New Hampshire or Buffalo.
This was the biggest stage. Jesus Savage owned it. And while he knows exactly what he did, he’s not yet ready to explain it in the proper context.
I’m waiting for the pace of life to slow down this offseason,” he says.
“It’s a crazy world. It’s a crazy world. Hollywood couldn’t create a world like this.”
