after a complete game last week<\/a>, followed two strikeouts in the first inning with five more in his outing.<\/p>\nIt was the sort of start that\u2019s become normal for Toronto\u2019s top offseason addition. On a team that\u2019s lacked consistency all year, Cease is a rare exception. Maybe his brilliance goes wasted this season, but at least he\u2019s under contract for the next six.<\/p>\n
The Jays, regardless of what form their 2026 trade deadline takes, will have a lot of work to do this winter. They\u2019ve got four starters and two regular hitters set for free agency. Pencil Cease ahead of Trey Yesavage and a rehabbing Cody Ponce, and they at least have the makings of a future rotation.<\/p>\n
In five July starts, Cease allowed just four earned runs. His ERA is down to 2.41 on the season, which ranks No. 5 in MLB and second in the American League. He\u2019s traded brilliance for brilliance with Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees out of the All-Star break, turning the American League Cy Young battle into a two-ace race.<\/p>\n
With a few more changeups and a little more aggression, Cease has quieted complaints of short outings. He\u2019s gone at least six innings in 10 of 20 starts this year. He wasn\u2019t even entirely dialed in Friday, walking three batters and allowing three hits, yet he still delivered six strong.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what reliability looks like.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what you expect when you give a guy $210 million, but it doesn\u2019t always work out this way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have a guy that can do that when he\u2019s not perfect,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cI think he\u2019s evolved as a pitcher. I think he\u2019s in a pretty good groove right now in terms of what he wants to do and where he wants to put the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardest things to find in baseball are stars. Teams can build depth and acquire role players regularly, but the carrying forces don\u2019t come around often. Guerrero will need to rediscover his heights for any future version of Toronto to flourish, but Cease just has to sustain his. That pair \u2014 alongside Alejandro Kirk, who is under contract through 2030 \u2014 are the backbone of this team.<\/p>\n
When Cease is throwing like this, he\u2019s a pitcher you plan weeks around. He\u2019s a guy you stick at the top of your rotation and then figure out the rest. The Jays had that in Robbie Ray for a season, followed by the fleeting years of Alek Manoah and the bulk of Kevin Gausman\u2019s five-year tenure. Now, though, they need a new rotation champion. Maybe Yesavage can grow into the role eventually, but Cease is doing it already.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has struggled to carry success from year to year. He nearly won a Cy Young in 2022 and followed it up with a 4.58 ERA. He finished fourth in the award\u2019s voting in 2024, then posted another mid-fours ERA the next year. Cease has quieted many doubts already this season, but next year he\u2019ll have to buck the on-and-off trend.<\/p>\n
If he can carry this version into 2027, Cease makes figuring out the future much easier for Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 roster could look a lot different after Monday\u2019s trade deadline. Franchise staples…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,364],"class_list":["post-797332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}