{"id":325856,"date":"2025-12-04T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/325856\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:38:11","slug":"blue-jays-receive-surprise-grade-for-dylan-cease-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/325856\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Receive Surprise Grade For Dylan Cease Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> made the biggest move of the offseason so far on Nov. 25, signing starting pitcher Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million deal.<\/p>\n

Cease commanded the biggest free-agent contract in the franchise’s history, $60 million higher than the previous record held by George Springer’s $150 million contract.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays addressed their need for solid starting pitching with their signing, but ESPN’s David Schoenfield and Bradford Doolittle ranked the signing a ‘B’.<\/p>\n

More news: Dodgers\u2019 Teoscar Hernandez Unexpectedly Linked to Red Sox by MLB Insider<\/a><\/p>\n

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“In the case of\u00a0Dylan Cease<\/a>, it makes a lot of sense for him to sign early while the money is there,” Doolittle and Schoenfield wrote<\/a>. “He’s a pitcher with clear skills and ability but also frustratingly inconsistent results, which was going to lead to a wide variance in how teams evaluated him — and thus what offers he received. The $210 million deal the\u00a0Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u00a0gave Cease is closer to the high end for him, given Kiley McDaniel’s projection of five years, $145 million.<\/p>\n

“…At a minimum, the Blue Jays get a solid middle-of-the rotation starter to go with\u00a0Kevin Gausman<\/a>,\u00a0Trey Yesavage<\/a>,\u00a0Shane Bieber<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jose Berrios<\/a>. The good version of Cease is a No. 2 starter who sometimes looks like an ace. If Bieber is healthy for the entire season and Berrios’ late-season elbow inflammation was just temporary, that’s a rotation that could be as good as any in the game.”<\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Dodgers Urged to Target Red Sox Outfielder in Blockbuster Trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Cease had a down year in 2025 after placing fourth in NL Cy Young voting the year prior, posting a 4.55 ERA through 168 innings pitched. While his ERA numbers rose, the main part of the right-hander’s game stayed consistent: His strikeouts. Cease led MLB<\/a> with his 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings, and his 29.8 percent strikeout rate placed just outside of the top 10 percent in MLB.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starters struck batters out at a 22.2 percent clip in 2025, placing them 15th in MLB. Adding a pitcher like Cease to the fold is sure to add some much-needed dynamism to their rotation, and is a solid first step in returning to the World Series.<\/p>\n

For all the latest\u00a0MLB<\/a>\u00a0news and rumors, head over to\u00a0Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays made the biggest move of the offseason so far on Nov. 25, signing starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[1513,49,48,16302,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-325856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-blue-jays","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-dylan-cease","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}