Despite recently receiving a three-year, $30 million deal from the Toronto Blue Jays, Cody Ponce’s journey to get back into the MLB has been far from easy.

After being drafted in the second round in 2015 by the Milwaukee Brewers, Ponce went on to pitch just 55.1 innings in the MLB, where he put up an extremely disappointing 5.86 ERA.

Due to his struggles in the big leagues, Ponce was forced to head overseas to continue his baseball career, spending three years in Japan’s NPB before joining the Hanwha Eagles of South Korean KBO for the 2025 season.

The move to the KBO paid off in spades for Ponce, as he was named the league’s MVP after posting a 1.89 ERA through 29 starts. All it took, according to the 31-year-old, was to get back to having fun while on the mound.

“The organization allowed me to come out again and by myself,” Ponce said on the Baseball is Dead podcast. “Let me go out and just play baseball. Let me have fun, let me laugh. Let me show a little bit of emotion. Let me actually have a sick pair of cleats on almost every other game.”

That said, it wasn’t always easy. Making the decision to go overseas was originally difficult for the right-hander, who admitted he nearly quit baseball altogether.

“I’m either going to get DFA’d from Pittsburgh, or [I] can go make a million dollars and put some money in the bank and be able to set up [my] future. It was like, ‘How can I set up my future if baseball is really going to be over for me in the next year or two.'”

As it turns out, Ponce’s career was far from over, as he recently landed by far and away the biggest deal of his career. A deal that, it turns out, his wife predicted well ahead of time. 

“Shoutout to my wife Emma. Halfway through the [2025] season, she goes, ‘We’re going to sign a three-year, $30 million deal. I’m putting that out there, I’m manifesting that.'”

Ponce admitted that he thought she was out to lunch originally. That dream is since become a reality, and he didn’t shy away from hiding his excitement over it.

“Everything in the world all came right there for us,” Ponce said. “That was our number, there’s no point to try and get more. It was like, I get to be part of this organization who just went to the World Series, who was literally one pitch short, one pitch.

“I was like, I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of this organization. And I did some phone calls, and one of my buddies said that a guy he knew said, ‘Toronto, hands down, best family, best team, best organization.’ He said, ‘I had the best time when I was with them.’ That put something, especially having a daughter, into perspective.”

Ponce joins a Jays rotation that also features Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber, and Jose Berrios. Whether they opt to trade Berrios or perhaps start the year out with a six-man rotation remains to be seen, but, based on the contract they offered, it’s evident this management group has a lot of confidence in Ponce’s abilities.