Through six starts, the Toronto Blue Jays are getting the full Dylan Cease experience.

Signed to a seven-year deal this past offseason worth $210 million, Cease is out to a solid start for his new team, going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA. He pairs with Kevin Gausman to make up one of the top rotation duos in the American League - one that can hopefully lead Toronto back to the World Series again in 2026 - and help the organization cover for the immense early season injury issue its undergone. 

The Blue Jays enter play on Wednesday at a disappointing 13-16 and in fourth place in the American League East.

Let's dive in a little deeper.

Through six starts and 31.1 innings, Cease has already struck out 49 batters, which leads the American League.

He has five consecutive seasons of 200 strikeouts or more and he's well on his way to doing that again. The best way to prevent runs is preventing hard contact, and the best way to do that is to prevent contact at all, which is something that Cease does in spades.

As noted by Baseball Savant, his strikeout rate is in the 96th percentile of baseball and his whiff rate is in the 97th percent. Suppressing contact is his specialty.

On the other side of things, Cease is in the 26th percentile of walk rate and he already has 17 walks in just those 31.1 innings. He led the American League in walks during the COVID 2020 season and led baseball in walks in 2022. 

As the saying goes: You can give up walks, or you can give up hits, but you can't give up both. Cease does a good job at limiting runs and he allows less than a hit-per-inning, but the walk rate of 12.3 percent is actually his highest since that 2020 season. The command will have to refine itself as the season goes on.

When you strike out a lot of people - and walk a lot of people - you are going to throw a lot of pitches. It took him 107 pitches to get through 5.2 innings in his last time out, and it was 110 through just five the time before that. He threw 106 pitches in six innings before that and has thrown 93 or more pitches in each of his last five outings.

These high-pitch count outings eventually take their toll on you, over the course of a game and the course of a season. And, if you're constantly out after five or five-plus innings, the bullpen gets taxed too.

Cease has pitched this way his whole career and he's got five straight seasons of 32 starts or more under his belt. His durability has not been a question - yet.

The Blue Jays will finish out a series with the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon at 3:07 p.m. ET.

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