{"id":59395,"date":"2025-12-03T07:11:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59395\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T07:11:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:11:38","slug":"blue-jays-signing-cody-ponce-to-three-year-30-million-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59395\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays signing Cody Ponce to three-year, $30 million contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Blue Jays continue to load up on arms this offseason. <\/p>\n<p>Toronto is finalizing a deal to bring in right-handed pitcher Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30 million deal, ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan reported Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>It marks a record contract for a pitcher returning to the United States from South Korea, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6853998\/2025\/12\/02\/mlb-cody-ponce-free-agency-signing-blue-jays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Athletic reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37828252\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1343400723.jpg\" alt=\"Cody Ponce #44 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches in the second inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on September 27, 2021 in Cincinnati, Ohio. \" class=\"wp-image-37828252\"  \/>Cody Ponce delivers during the second inning of the Pirates road loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Sept. 27, 2021. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The American League champions already added former Padres righty Dylan Cease on a $210 million contract last week, and bringing in Ponce should help boost the staff. <\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old \u2014 a second-round pick by the Brewers in 2024 \u2014 had a 5.86 ERA in the big leagues and hasn\u2019t pitched stateside since 2021, but he\u2019s turned around his career overseas in Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>After three seasons in Japan, where he held a 4.54 ERA, Ponce truly made a leap in 2025 with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. <\/p>\n<p>He posted a 2.04 ERA with a league-record 252 strikeouts over 180 2\/3 innings. He won the league\u2019s MVP at year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear yet how the Blue Jays plan to use Ponce, but after pitching in a mix of relief for the Pirates and Brewers earlier in the decade, he pitched as a full-time starter in 29 games in Korea this past season. So, at minimum, he should be a rotation option.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37828253\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1234625487.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Cody Ponce (44) looks on during the MLB game against the Milwaukee Brewers on August 4, 2021 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\" class=\"wp-image-37828253\"  \/>Cody Ponce looks on during the Pirates\u2019 road loss to the Brewers on Aug. 4, 2021 at American Family Field. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The rest of Toronto\u2019s rotation will likely include Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber and Jose Berr\u00edos as they look to hold off the Yankees in the American League East again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays continue to load up on arms this offseason. Toronto is finalizing a deal to bring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,3473,9,11,10,319,10747],"class_list":{"0":"post-59395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-mlb-free-agency","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}