Free agent starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who has made at least 32 starts in each of the past five seasons, reached a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Wednesday.
With the deal, which is pending a physical, the Blue Jays add to an already formidable team that won the American League pennant and advanced to the World Series, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
Cease, who turns 30 next month, has been a reliable front-line starter for the past five seasons, ranking fourth in that span in pitcher WAR, ahead of Tarik Skubal, Max Fried and Framber Valdez.
The right-hander has alternated between dominant seasons and, given the quality of his stuff, disappointing ones. In 2022 and 2024, Cease finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting, respectively, while going 28-19 with a 2.84 ERA. In 2023 and 2025, he went 15-21 with a 4.57 ERA.
Cease has vertically oriented movement because of his higher slot, a fastball/breaking ball-heavy power approach (at least 80% fastball/slider to both right-handed and left-handed batters) and an elevated walk rate at times paired with a big whiff rate.
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His slider in particular fell off this past season, going from the game’s most valuable by runs above average in 2024 to opposing hitters slugging .374 against it in 2025. Still, though, Cease is coming off posting a career-best strikeout rate of 29.8% and putting up a fielding independent pitching score of 3.56, a slight improvement when compared with his average from 2021 to 2024.
Those peripherals, when coupled with his age and the deficiencies of the other available starters, made him one of the most attractive pitchers in free agency.
Cease was tendered a $22.025 million qualifying offer by the Padres, which he declined by the Nov. 18 deadline. Because he signed with a new team, San Diego will receive a compensatory draft pick after the fourth round.
A sixth-round pick from the Chicago Cubs out of Georgia in 2014, Cease originally went to the neighboring Chicago White Sox alongside Eloy Jimenez in a 2017 trade headlined by Jose Quintana, then was acquired by the San Diego Padres for a package of prospects in March 2024.
In five years as a full-time starter from 2021 to 2025, Cease led the majors in strikeouts (1,106) but also in walks (361) and wild pitches (51).
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez and Kiley McDaniel contributed to this report.
