Pitcher Dylan Cease started working out with the Toronto Blue Jays about 10 days ago, he told reporters on Wednesday, as the team began its spring training.Kim Klement Neitzel/Reuters
Dylan Cease has helped his dad keep bees for years. It’s a honey of a way for them to share time and commune with nature.
“Mostly I just enjoy reaping the harvest,” the Toronto Blue Jays’ US$210-million pitcher chuckled on Wednesday as training camp began in Dunedin, Fla.
Among baseball’s most elite talents, Cease throws 97 miles per hour and has struck out more than 200 batters for five straight years.
He tumbled a bit last season in San Diego and Toronto scooped him up and signed him to a seven-year deal as a free agent.
Here’s how best to assess that: They paid him more than any free agent in club history.
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“We acquired him for a reason,” manager John Schneider said. “The most important thing is getting him acclimated with everyone here and getting him ready to be a top-end guy.”
He has been in Florida for about 10 days and has spent much of that time tinkering with pitches and hanging out with Kevin Gausman and Cody Ponce. Gausman has been Toronto’s top starter for a while, Ponce is an impressive newcomer who was been spectacular the last two years in Korea.
A lot rides on Cease’s shoulders as the Blue Jays enter their 50th anniversary season. They came within one out of winning the World Series – a bit of an unexpected surprise – and have been advertising a Cease-On season ticket campaign.
That doesn’t seem to faze him.
Cease, right, has enjoyed spending time with his new Blue Jays pitching teammates Cody Ponce, left, and Kevin Gausman.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
“For me, the biggest thing is getting everything ready for game action,” Cease said. “My stuff has always been there.
“Whether I am in the zone or not sometimes is a matter of a mechanical issue and that has to be tweaked. It all comes down to feel and execution.”
With the exception of injuries it appears that Cease and Gausman – or Gausman and Cease – will be at the top of Toronto’s starting rotation.
Shane Bieber would be the presumed No. 3 starter, although he has been advised by the club’s medical staff to take a little time off and take it slow at the start of training camp. Bieber was obtained at the trade deadline in 2025 and was mostly successful once he joined Toronto. He previously won a Cy Young Award with Cleveland but is still fewer than two years from undergoing elbow reconstruction surgery and is experiencing fatigue in his right arm.
The team has said he might not be on the roster when the regular season begins next month.
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“Last year was my first time coming off Tommy John surgery and my first time pitching in the postseason,” Bieber said Wednesday. “Those innings were really the most intense I have ever pitched.
“I feel good. It’s not about how you start but how you finish. What matters is how hungry you are, and I am hungry.”
If Bieber does not start the season with the Blue Jays, then rookie Trey Yesavage would likely move into the third spot, followed by Ponce and perhaps Erik Lauer.
Cease appears ready to make a run at the No. 1 starter’s job. In his first face to-face with journalists, he was breezy. Although it wasn’t too warm he wore a headband. He looked like he and a few mates might have had a gig later in the afternoon at a cabana bar.
His personality stands out and he should fit nicely into an easygoing clubhouse.
“I remember speaking to him on Zoom for the first time and during the winter meetings,” Schneider said. “Fun loving. His personality fits in fine with everyone here.
“When you talk to him it feels like you have known him for a long time.”
It was pretty much a perfect February day on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The grass was green. Skies were blue. The temperature hovered around 20 C. Cease was in good humour.
“I like to find something new every year,” he said of his outside interests. “Cigars, and now I am into vintage clothing. Vintage T-shirts and stuff like that.
“I love lowballing people on eBay.”