Happy Thanksgiving to MLBTR\u2019s readers in the United States, and for our non-American readers\u2026.uh, happy Thursday?\u00a0 Here are three things we\u2019re keeping an eye on besides the turkey in the oven\u2026.<\/p>\n
1. Blue Jays land Dylan Cease:<\/p>\n
The reigning AL champs made the priciest free agent signing in team history yesterday, as reports indicated<\/a> that Toronto inked Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210MM contract.\u00a0 The contract will be finalized once Cease passes a physical, and while it\u2019s just a matter of time before we get the official announcement, it\u2019s possible things could be delayed a few days simply due to the Thanksgiving weekend.\u00a0 As it stands, the Jays seem to have already finished up their rotation shopping pretty early in the offseason, between the Cease signing and Shane Bieber\u2019s surprising decision to exercise his player option<\/a> to remain in Toronto through the 2026 campaign.\u00a0 With the starting pitching mix potentially settled already, the Blue Jays can now turn their attention to re-signing Bo Bichette or adding another big bat to their lineup.\u00a0 For the rest of the league, Cease\u2019s decision removes a top-tier arm from the board, so pitching-needy teams will have to turn their attention to other starters in free agency or on the trade market.<\/p>\n 2. Rockies re-introduce Warren Schaeffer:<\/p>\n After operating as Colorado\u2019s interim manager for most of the 2025 season, Warren Schaeffer was named<\/a> the club\u2019s new full-time skipper.\u00a0 There hadn\u2019t been much news about the Rockies\u2019 managerial search because, in essence, one didn\u2019t happen, as president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta explained at a press conference yesterday.\u00a0 DePodesta told the Denver Post\u2019s Patrick Saunders<\/a> and other reporters that he informally looked into some other candidates but \u201cultimately, I didn\u2019t feel the need to interview anybody else,\u201d as \u201cI would say, even a week in\u2026.it became pretty clear to me that [Schaeffer] was a good direction to go.\u201d\u00a0 This won\u2019t exactly calm the fears of Rockies worried that the team is still going to be operating in an insular fashion, even though DePodestra is an entirely fresh face as the new head of the front office.\u00a0 Still, Schaeffer received praise for how he handled stepping into a rough situation last season, and his 36-86 record is obviously far more a reflection on Colorado\u2019s dismal roster than on Schaeffer\u2019s work in his first season as a big league manager.<\/p>\n 3. The Anthony Rendon era nears an end in Anaheim:<\/p>\n