Right-handed starter Dylan Cease, one of the top pitchers in the free-agent market, has taken Toronto’s seven-year, $210 million offer. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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Thanksgiving came a day early for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The American League champions, who took the Los Angeles Dodgers into an 11-inning Game 7 before losing the World Series, signed coveted right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease Wednesday.
He received the largest contract ever given a free agent by the Blue Jays, a 1977 expansion team.
The seven-year, $210 million deal, which contains deferred dollars, has an annual average value of $30 million, according to Sportrac. It becomes official after the pitcher passes a physical.
Durability Counts
Cease, who pitched for the San Diego Padres last season, is a durable starter who has made at least 32 starts in each of the last five campaigns. He and Framber Valdez, a left-hander who remains at large, were widely considered the top pitchers available in the current free-agent class.
The hard-throwing right-hander has struck out at least 200 hitters five years in a row. He has also two 14-win seasons on his resume.
Rookie Trey Yesavage was a surprise postseason star for the 2025 AL Champion Toronto Blue Jays. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
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The signing solidifies a Toronto rotation that already includes veterans Shane Bieber and Kevin Gausman plus Trey Yesavage, a rookie whose confidence and composure made him a surprise post-season star. Jose Berríos is also expected to be a mainstay in the team’s rotation next season, though two other 2025 starters, Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer, are now free agents.
The Jays are in the market for a left-hander to balance their rotation, with Eric Lauer the lone lefty likely to return.
Cease, who turns 30 three days after Christmas, broke into the big leagues with the 2019 Chicago White Sox and went to San Diego in a 2024 trade. The Georgia native was originally drafted by the Chicago Cubs but never pitched for them.
Success At Last
Signing Cease was a major achievement for the Jays, who made strong bids for Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto when those superstars were available via free agency in recent off-seasons.
The early signing was a surprise too, since most other clients of super-agent Scott Boras stretch out their negotiations for months, even extending into the start of spring training on occasion. But Toronto’s bid satisfied the pitcher’s wishes for years, dollars, and a potential championship season.
Toronto has not won a world championship since 1993, when it won its second in a row with a defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies. The previous year, the Jays outlasted the Atlanta Braves.
The Jays finished last year with a 94-68 record, tied with the New York Yankees for the best in the American League.
Sportrac figures show Toronto first in the AL and fourth in the majors with a projected 2026 payroll of $193,025,266. That is expected to increase as a result of arbitration results and additional free-agent expenditures.
The Cease contract runs through the 2032 season.