Flanked by his agent, Scott Boras, and Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins on a dais at the winter meetings last December, right-hander Dylan Cease was asked why he chose to sign with Toronto as a free agent. With the buzz of the Blue Jays’ magical run to Game 7 of the World Series still lingering — and their aggressive offseason opening statement of adding Cease on a seven-year contract — the first part of their new ace’s answer was no surprise.
“The biggest part really was being able to be a part of a championship team,” Cease said. “Obviously with that run, they’ve proven that they have championship-caliber players and a good process. That was probably the No. 1 thing.”
This was a pretty standard thing to hear during an introductory news conference for a marquee free agent, even one signing with a team that didn’t just win the pennant.
But Cease went further.
“There was also: How would they help me maximize and develop and basically reach my potential more often? That was important to me,” he added. “That was probably the second-biggest consideration.”
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Develop? Potential? This diverged from the usual platitudes uttered by the best players in the sport after they sign gigantic contracts. It’s not that premium free agents have no desire to improve after signing, but stating as much after securing generational wealth felt unusual.
Then again, it was appropriate coming from Cease, an unusual upper-echelon free agent. The right-hander was coming off a season with San Diego in which he posted a 4.55 ERA, which ranked 43rd among 52 qualified starting pitchers. Of the 30 starting pitchers who signed nine-figure free-agent contracts before Cease, none had a higher ERA in the season before hitting the open market. And Cease comfortably cleared the $100 million threshold, netting a $210 million guarantee over seven years. Even with deferrals factored in, the present-day value of the deal was roughly $185 million. It was a staggering sum for a pitcher with a far shoddier track record of run prevention than virtually all of the highly paid hurlers who came before him.
That said, Cease’s gaudy strikeout totals and impressive durability made him a hot commodity in free agency. His stuff — primarily his high-90s heater and vicious slider — and availability, having never been on the injured list as a major leaguer, have long been revered league-wide. Still, looking back on the process now, Cease understands the skepticism about his résumé warranting such a significant financial outlay.
“I thought it was fair because I thought my 2025 season was poor,” he said. And it wasn’t just a talking point among fans and analysts. His fellow players heard the concerns as well.
“It was my understanding that he gave up runs but struck a lot of guys out and didn’t really go deep into games,” Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement said. “I remember every time we faced him, we’d get him out of there by the fourth or fifth inning. But he struck everybody out, so it was like, ‘Alright, what are we getting here?'”
From the outside, it always felt like there was another level for Cease to reach. In referencing his desire to maximize his potential as a Blue Jay, the pitcher made it clear he felt the same way.
“I had a bad 2025,” he reaffirmed earlier this month. “But at the same time, I knew that didn’t mean I couldn’t go out and improve and fix it. And I had the desire to do it. So it was like, yeah, I can see why somebody would draw that conclusion. [But] I’m not accepting it as my reality until I have to.”
And so Cease went to work, determined to make the most of his new surroundings and a Toronto infrastructure that made a compelling case that it could be the right place to elevate his game. Nine months later, Cease feels good about his decision.
“I would say it’s been as close to the best-case scenario as you can imagine,” he said. “I feel like I’m definitely a better pitcher now.”
His teammates concur: “And then he shows up, and I think he’s absolutely just blown expectations out of the water,” Clement said. “Even for a nice, fat contract.”
Cease has indeed made a fantastic first impression with his new ballclub. On opening weekend against the Athletics, he introduced himself to the home crowd by setting a franchise record with 12 strikeouts on just 90 pitches in his Blue Jays debut. He has dominated away from Rogers Centre as well, with his best outing of the year a one-hit shutout at Fenway Park on July 25.
After leaning heavily on his fastball and slider for years, Cease has unlocked a reliable changeup with Toronto, enabling notably increased effectiveness against left-handed hitters. Attacking with the cambio a career-high 19% of the time against opposite-handed hitters, Cease has held lefty bats to a .525 OPS this season, the lowest mark of his career and third-lowest among starting pitchers this season, behind only Jacob Misiorowski and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“I think just trusting it and working diligently to figure out how I get it in the zone,” Cease said of his improved offspeed offering. “Just knowing it’s not going to be a crazy movement pitch for me — it’s a change of speed pitch.”
Barely a factor in his repertoire in previous seasons, Cease’s changeup has produced a 48.8% whiff rate this season, the ninth-highest rate for any individual pitch thrown at least 300 times. It has been quite the boon for an arsenal that already featured one of the best breaking balls in the league in Cease’s slider, which has seen its usage plummet from 41% to 30% this year but continues to rate as one of the most effective offerings in the league. The pitch ranks fifth in run value and is holding opponents to a paltry .200 wOBA.
Having multiple elite options beyond the fastball — a stellar, low-80s knuckle-curve accounts for 10% of his offerings — has proved especially vital more recently, as Cease’s velocity has noticeably tailed off, with his fastball sitting closer to 94 mph over his past three outings than the 97 mph he showcased earlier in the summer. (Cease and the Blue Jays have acknowledged the dip in velocity but insist there is no health concern, rather just some subtle mechanical inconsistencies.)
And while one area of weakness has seemingly not been addressed — Cease’s 10.8% walk rate is a career high — Cease feels good about how he has attacked the zone relative to prior seasons.
“I feel like I’m mostly executing,” he said. “Even the games where I have a lot of walks, it’s like, I don’t miss by much, and they were good at-bats. … I’m competing, whereas in the past, there might be a lot of walks, and there were a lot of 2-0 counts where I threw one down the middle, and it got hit.”
To combat the free passes, Cease’s expanded arsenal has given him more avenues to navigate traffic on the bases, rather than needing to chase whiffs all the time. He is coaxing less threatening contact: Cease’s 0.60 HR/9 is not only the lowest mark of his career but also the second-lowest mark for any qualified starting pitcher this season, behind only Chris Sale (0.52). A groundball rate that had long been below league average is now a tick above at a career-best 42.9%. His hard-hit rate allowed has sunk to 31.9%, his lowest mark since 2022 — his best season in the majors before this one, when he finished second in AL Cy Young voting, a podium finish he might replicate this year behind Yankees ace Cam Schlittler.
It also doesn’t hurt to have one of baseball’s best defenses playing behind him. And Cease has benefited from Toronto’s elite defensive duo behind the dish in Alejandro Kirk and rookie Brandon Valenzuela, who each rank among the top five catchers in MLB by Statcast’s Fielding Run Value.
“Kirk and Valley are both nasty,” Cease said. “They’re both defensively studs. It’s been great. I have extreme confidence and faith in both of them.”
All together, Cease has emphatically addressed his most glaring red flag, doing an excellent job of keeping runs off the board. With just a couple of regular-season starts remaining — including a high-stakes outing Friday at Texas as the Blue Jays try to keep pace in the AL wild-card race — Cease’s 2.38 ERA is the fourth-lowest mark among qualified starters, behind Misiorowski, Schlittler and Sale.
And the signature element of his profile is still entirely intact: Cease has climbed to a career-high 236 strikeouts, punching out batters at a 35.3% clip, bested only by Misiorowski. This is Cease’s sixth consecutive season recording 200-plus strikeouts. No other pitcher has done it more than three times during that span, and that cohort includes only seven arms.
Said Cease: “I just feel like overall, I’m a better pitcher right now than I’ve ever been.”
Between starts, Cease’s eccentric hobbies and dry sense of humor have endeared him to the Toronto fan base and clubhouse alike. He is an avid disc golfer. His passion for yoga has prompted visits to a meditation retreat in rural Tennessee. He hunts vintage T-shirts on eBay. He scratches his artistic itch by painting, and earlier this season, he crafted an original piece titled “Eve of Toronto,” which was put on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
“We must have a lot of weird guys on our team because he fits right in,” Clement said. “He’s just been amazing, and he’s unbelievable to be around. We absolutely love him. He’s hysterical. All his antics, his painting and everything. His personality is phenomenal. He comes off a little dry because of the way he talks, but his sense of humor is, like, I just die laughing about everything.”
This man of many hobbies still wants to explore some new ones. “Learning some sort of fighting skill would be really cool,” Cease said when asked what has seized his attention recently. “But I don’t feel like I’m allowed to risk it right now.”
A valid concern. So the focus shifted: “I think it would move more toward survival skills,” he said. “I’ve watched YouTube videos of guys who go up in the mountains, they catch their fish, they cook it, they clean it, they build a fire, they sleep in the tent. That would be interesting.”
Does he have any experience hiking in the wilderness?
“Zero,” he admitted. “That’s why I don’t know if I’ll ever do it. I mean, fishing’s cool — I could see that. But yeah, they just seem like very worthwhile skills to have.”
There will likely always be something new piquing Cease’s interest beyond baseball. But for now, he’s focused on finishing strong in his first season as a Blue Jay. An injury-ravaged rotation around him and an underperforming offense have dampened Cease’s chances of pursuing a championship this year, but he has done his part to push Toronto back to October.
And while his teammates have come to enjoy Cease the person, it’s still his efforts on the mound that are most appreciated.
Said Clement: “Our job on the field is pretty easy when he’s out there.”
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