{"id":335749,"date":"2025-12-10T01:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335749\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T01:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:16:12","slug":"sold-on-their-playoff-run-cease-wants-to-help-the-blue-jays-win-the-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335749\/","title":{"rendered":"Sold on their playoff run, Cease wants to help the Blue Jays win the World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Dylan Cease, the brand new pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, shakes hands with general manager Ross Atkins after he was presented with a team hat and jersey during his introductory news conference at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings on Tuesday in Orlando, Fla.John Raoux\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Dylan Cease made his first appearance for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> at baseball\u2019s winter meetings in Orlando on Tuesday and fairly well blew people away like he does major league batters.<\/p>\n

The top free-agent pitching prospect heading into the postseason signed a seven-year US$210-million contract<\/a> with Toronto two weeks ago. He is the second highest-paid player in club history after Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who signed a 14-year-contract extension last year for US$500-million.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old right-hander hits 100 miles an hour on the radar gun and has struck out 200 or more batters in each of the past five seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited to go to work every day for the next seven years, and to be a part of championship baseball,\u201d Cease said after pulling on a Blue Jays\u2019 jersey at the news conference. His parents, Jeff and Anne, were also in attendance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited and grateful for the opportunity and look forward to giving everything and more that I have to the Blue Jays\u2019 organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cease went 65-58 with a 3.88 earned run average over seven seasons with the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres. This year was the worst of his professional career: an 8-12 record with a 4.55 ERA with San Diego.<\/p>\n

Many teams showed interest in him but Toronto snapped Cease up quite early in the process. The free-agent market usually heats up over the next month or two leading up to spring training.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays won the American League East Division in 2025 and reached the World Series for the first time in more than three decades. They went on to lose in extra innings in Game 7 against the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cease will likely be at the top of a starting rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber and possibly Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos or Max Scherzer. Berrios was injured and missed the postseason while Scherzer, 41, is a free agent but has professed a hope to return to Toronto.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

After putting on his Jays’ hat and jersey, Cease said that the organization’s presentation to him impressed him to the point that he said his signing felt inevitable.John Raoux\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Even without all-star shortstop Bo Bichette, whose contract has expired, the Blue Jays possess a talent-laden lineup that includes Guerrero, George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, Ernie Clement and Anthony Santander. Bichette recently met with the brass of the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest part of my decision really was being able to be a part of a championship team and with the run last year Toronto has proven it has championship-calibre players,\u201d Cease said. \u201cFrom there it was also about how they would help me to maximize, and reach my potential more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing was trusting them to come up with a plan and to execute for me. It seemed from the get-go that this was going to be pretty inevitable. They knocked out of the ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cease was flanked by Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins and Scott Boras, a lawyer and Cease\u2019s agent. Boras\u2019s A-list of major league clients includes Juan Soto, Gerrit Cole, Cody Bellinger, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Blake Snell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission and our goal is to bring championships back to the country and this is a huge part of that,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n

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Boras said he was impressed with Toronto\u2019s presentation last off-season while pursuing Soto, including meeting with team owner Edward Rogers III. That relationship helped to broker the deal for Cease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we met last year, they listened to what players wanted when it comes to amenities and facilities,\u201d Boras said. \u201cThey have set an example for other major league teams. They are reaching the pinnacle of the top organizations in baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a long time to get to where Toronto is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cease watched Game 7 of the World Series but didn\u2019t take in much of the playoffs before that. He said he reached out to Gausman and Springer reached out to him during negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to a few other people, too, and the consensus was that nobody had a bad word to say so after that it was pretty straightforward,\u201d Cease said. \u201cNow I want to assimilate into the team and be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Cease, centre, with his attorney Scott Boras, left, and GM Atkins, during Cease’s introductory news conference.John Raoux\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Dylan Cease, the brand new pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, shakes hands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82,8023],"class_list":{"0":"post-335749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-topstory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335749","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=335749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}