The right-hander signed a seven-year deal in the offseason and he's giving the Blue Jays exactly what they expected - and then some.
On Wednesday, we wrote a story about new Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dylan Cease and how he's given the Jays the 'full Dylan Cease experience' after signing a seven-year, $210 million contract in the offseason.
Cease has continued to be an elite strikeout pitcher who is saddled by a high walk rate and deep pitch counts that limit his ability to go deep into games.
But as noted by Justin Havens of the 'Baseball is Dead' podcast, Cease is even more elite at generating strikeouts than he was last season, signaling improvement on an already excellent skill.
Year 1 with Jays: Dylan Cease has the 2nd-highest strikeout rate in MLB and the highest in the AL (35.5%).
Cease's year-over-year strikeout rate increase (+5.7%) is the 4th-highest in MLB:
José Soriano: +9.1%
Luis Severino: +7.1%
Gavin Williams: +6.4%
Dylan Cease: +5.7%
As noted by Baseball Savant, Cease is in the 96th percentile of strikeout rate in baseball and he's in the 97th percentile of whiff rate. He's also excellent at suppressing hard contact when he does allow it, which is increasingly rare.
About Cease
A 30-year-old native of Georgia, Cease was a sixth-round pick of the Chicago Cubs in the 2014 MLB Draft. Traded from the Cubs to the Chicago White Sox in 2017, he made his debut in 2019.
Since then, he's been one of the most durable and successful pitchers in baseball. He made 12 starts in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and then has made 32 starts or more in each of the five seasons since. He's gone 66-59 with a 3.85 career ERA and he has five straight seasons of 200 strikeouts or more.
The White Sox traded him to the San Diego Padres before the 2024 season and he signed with Toronto this past offseason.
He pairs with Kevin Gausman to make up one of the top 1-2 punches in the American League, one that the Blue Jays hope will lead them back to the World Series again this year.
Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Dylan Cease (84) delivers a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in the second inning at Rogers Centre. Dan Hamilton-Imagn ImagesUp next for Toronto
After winning a series against the Boston Red Sox this week, the Blue Jays will hit the road for a series with the reeling Minnesota Twins, who have lost 11 of their 13 games.
Toronto is 14-16 and inching toward .500 while the Twins are 13-18.
Gausman will take the ball in game one of the series against right-hander Bailey Ober. Gausman is 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA while Ober is 2-1 with a 3.94.
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