The Toronto Blue Jays added several starting pitchers to their rotation this offseason, with one of them having a big question mark attached to him.

Right-handed starting pitcher Cody Ponce was signed to a three-year, $30 million contract after a four-season excursion overseas that included him being named the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) MVP in 2025.

Ponce received a vote of a confidence from Blue Jays manager John Schneider, who confirmed the team plans to have him in the starting rotation and he isn't competing for a spot.

Ponce got his first taste of major league action since he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021 on Wednesday in Toronto's Grapefruit League showdown against the Detroit Tigers.

In a 4-4 tie against the Tigers, Ponce started the game and pitched one inning. He struck out two, didn't issue a walk and didn't allow a hit or run.

Ponce faced questions over how his stuff would translate compared to his last stint in the major leagues and a lot of those questions were answered in his one inning of work.

Ponce threw 22 total pitches in one inning, 16 of which were strikes. He showed off a four-pitch mix of a four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup and curveball.

His career major league fastball average entering Tuesday was a tick over 93 miles per hour. He maxed out at 96 mph in his last season in the majors in 2021. He averaged 96 mph on 10 fastball offerings Tuesday, according to Baseball Savant. He topped out at 97 mph.

One of Ponce's strikeouts came via his cutter and the other was via his changeup. He had an increase in velocity across all of his pitches, according to Baseball Savant.

Ponce averaged 89 mph on five offerings from changeup (up from a career average of 86.1 mph); averaged 91.9 mph on five offerings from his cutter (up from 89.4 mph) and averaged 84.4 mph on two curveballs (up from 79.5 mph).

It was only one inning and the first start in the major leagues in almost five years for Ponce but it was a good display of what earned him a multi-year commitment from the Blue Jays.

According to FanGraphs' roster resource depth chart projections, Ponce is set to open camp as the fifth hurler on Toronto's rotation. The four pitchers ahead of Ponce are the rotation are predicted to be, in order: Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and Jose Berrios.

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