Baseball

Dylan Cease: no starter pulls guys off catches like him
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Dylan Cease: no starter pulls guys off catches like him
Credit: X

The Blue Jays have given Dylan Cease $210 million to pitch important games in Toronto. This is excellent news for the club… even if he is a little overpaid.

This team's 2026 rotation will be excellent, in fact.

Cease, who spent the last two years in San Diego after years in Chicago, is back in the American. And now, after years of trade rumors, he's gone to find a bit of stability.

Good for him.

The Blue Jays too, by the way, are getting some stability. The guy has thrown at least 32 starts in his last five years (plus 12 in 2020's 60-game season) and he's still healthy.

Yes, he gives up too many bases on balls, which affects his average… but I'm sure that playing with a good defense was part of his criteria when it came time for the Georgia native to choose his next team.

I say this even though, in reality, he doesn't always need his defense.

Why not? Because among qualified pitchers, no one else did better than his 11.52 strikeouts per nine innings in 2025. Garrett Crochet and Tarik Skubal are right behind him.

His swinging strike rate (15.6%) is also the second best in the Majors in 2025, behind Skubal.

Since 2021, no other pitcher has more Ks than he does. So he's a machine at this level and one of the best in his profession when he's at the top of his game.

Cease has collected 215, 224, 214, 227 and 226 strikeouts in his last five seasons. Let's just say it's hard to ask for more than that from a top-tier pitcher.

It remains to be seen whether the $210 million given to the pitcher will have the effect of taking the Blue Jays out of the race for Kyle Tucker. But in any case, I can't see Bo Bichette not being a target for Toronto, despite this contract.

This content was created with the help of AI.

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