The Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation is much stronger on Wednesday than it was when the team was one win shy of becoming World Series champions.
General manager Ross Atkins made a major statement by signing former San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease to a whopping seven-year deal worth $210 million, an average of $30 million per year, according to MLB insider Jon Heyman.
Cease’s deal will make the winter meetings much more entertaining with the market starting to take shape. In the mean time, Toronto’s rotation is now among the best in baseball, and one insider believes it was a statement to the other 29 teams.
“This is the exact type of deal the #BlueJays needed in their rotation,” Keegan Matheson wrote on X. “Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber are free agents after 2026 while José Berríos has a player option. Now, in Cease and Trey Yesavage, two new long-term cornerstones. A massive statement by Toronto.”
Cease was viewed as one of the best starting pitchers available on the market along with big names such as Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, former Padres teammate Michael King and Japanese star Tatsuya Imai. The 29-year-old starting pitcher has now solidified himself to be a staple of the Blue Jays’ rotation into the early 2030s.
Last season was not the greatest for him in terms of his 4.55 ERA and 1.33 WHIP. However, he struck out 11.5 hitters every nine innings, the second-highest total in his career, and Cease also made 32 starts for the Padres. That is now five consecutive seasons of making 30-or-more starts which makes him a workhorse in any team’s rotation, and the Blue Jays will happily take him into their pitching nest.
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