Dylan Cease agrees to 7-year, $210 million deal with Blue Jays, per report.
Few MLB pitchers are more frustrating than Dylan Cease. When he's on, Cease looks like a future Hall of Famer and perennial Cy Young award contender. When he's off, he looks like a back-end starter incapable of finding the zone.
The Toronto Blue Jays are betting that the "on" version is Cease's true form. Cease reportedly agreed to a seven-year, $210 million deal with Toronto on Wednesday, according to
Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
Cease, 29, entered free agency coming off a down season. In his walk year with the San Diego Padres, Cease posted a 4.55 ERA over 168 innings. He still struck out batters in bunches, racking up 215 strikeouts, but also walked 71, one of the highest totals in the majors.
That performance is the perfect encapsulation of Cease's MLB career, which has featured exhilarating highs and maddeningly-frustrating lows.
When Cease is on, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. Armed with some of the nastiest pitches in the game, Cease racks up strikeouts at an elite rate. Since becoming a full-time starter in 2021, Cease has never had a season with fewer than 214 strikeouts. He's also proved to be incredibly durable. Over that same period, Cease ranks seventh with 884 innings pitched. Cease walks more batters than most pitchers, but is typically able to lean on his phenomenal stuff to work out of those self-inflicted jams.
When all of that comes together — like it did in 2022 and 2024 — Cease is capable of putting up seasons worthy of the Cy Young award. He didn't win the award either season, but finished second in 2022 after putting up a 2.20 ERA over 184 innings and finished fourth in 2024 after posting a 3.47 ERA in 189 1/3 innings.
