The Reds have set a new bar for young pitchers, and that should have the Blue Jays thinking hard about Trey Yesavage.
On Thursday, Cincinnati agreed to a seven-year, $105-million extension with Chase Burns, the 23-year-old right-hander the club took second overall in the 2024 draft and signed for a $9.25-million bonus. It’s a massive commitment, and one that tells you exactly how the Reds see Burns: not as a nice piece, but as the arm they want to build around.
Burns has given them plenty to justify that faith. He debuted in the majors on Jun. 24, 2025, kept a rotation job through the end of the season, then made the team again out of spring training to open the 2026 campaign.
So far, he’s thrown 102.2 innings with 118 strikeouts, a 2.54 ERA and a 3.40 FIP. He was also named an All-Star this year.
The deal is historic in a couple of ways. It’s the largest contract ever given to a pitcher with less than four years of MLB service time, and it also matches Homer Bailey for the biggest guaranteed deal the Reds have ever handed a pitcher.
That’s where Toronto enters the picture. Trey Yesavage was picked 18 spots after Burns and landed with the Blue Jays at No. 20 overall.
Like Burns, he won’t be arbitration eligible until 2029 and won’t reach free agency until 2032. Toronto gave him a $4.17-million signing bonus, and that investment already looks smart after how important he was down the stretch and into the 2025 postseason.
The comparison is obvious. Burns’ extension buys out two years of free agency and keeps him from reaching the market until his age-31 season in 2034. If the Blue Jays ever wanted to follow that kind of path with Yesavage, locking him in through his 20s would make a lot of sense.
And Yesavage has done enough to make that conversation real. In 89 innings, he’s posted a 3.64 ERA and a 3.84 FIP with 85 strikeouts. He’s also shown he can handle the biggest moments, looking better as the pressure has risen around him.
His season hasn’t been perfectly smooth. He’s had stretches where he’s been dominant, and others where he’s struggled to find the strike zone. But at 22, he’s already shown enough to look like a pitcher worth betting on for the long haul.
That’s the bigger lesson here for Toronto. The Blue Jays have rarely gone all-in on long-term extensions. Ross Atkins has only had one major one on the books, the $500 million deal for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which effectively meant choosing him over shortstop Bo Bichette.
Most of the rest of the roster building has come through trades and free agency. A lot of the players the Blue Jays have drafted either moved on when their deals expired or were dealt before they could get there.
The rotation is still the area where Toronto is searching for a true long-term fixture, and Yesavage could be that guy. Burns’ contract works out to about $15 million a year, which is the kind of money you pay for a solid mid-rotation starter on the open market. It is not ace money.
That’s why the Burns deal should resonate in Toronto. Had Atkins made similar commitments to Bo and Vladdy when they were in their 20s, it would have looked perfectly reasonable. Even pushing those deals to roughly $25 million over seven years would have still felt team-friendly by the time everything played out.
There is risk, of course. Pitchers break down more easily than position players, and a seven-year deal can go sideways in a hurry. But if Blue Jays fans have learned anything from this era, it’s that getting ahead of the market with younger players can save a lot of headaches later.
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For Toronto, the bigger question is whether a sellers market is starting to tilt in its favor if the club decides to move pieces before the deadline. A trade built around a pitcher with McCullers name value, despite the uneven year, can only help the Blue Jays case if they choose to listen on veterans, because it suggests clubs are still willing to chase proven upside even when the current numbers are messy. [Read more 🡒]
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Blue Jays Just Got Surprising Draft Praise Despite Their Disadvantage
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Carlon, the Arizona State left-hander, was viewed as a potential mid-rotation starter thanks to two bat-missing pitches and some room to keep growing through his changeup. Brick, a high school catcher, gives the Blue Jays another high-upside name to track as the organization continues to build depth behind the plate and on the mound. Toronto also added several undrafted free agent pitchers after the draft, which suggests the front office kept working to squeeze value out of the process even after the headline picks were in. [Read more 🡒]