TOR - Sign Dylan Cease to 7-yr/$210M

Well the Toronto Blue Jays wasted no time getting into the offseason action as it was announced around a week ago that they had came to a 7-year $210M deal with SP Dylan Cease.

Cease being one of the top free agent SP's available this offseason was clearly on the top of the Blue Jays priority list, considering they wasted no time in going out and getting him. For a price tag that a lot of people are saying is "too much" for guy like Cease, but I would have to say I disagree.

Yes, sure Cease is coming off a "bad year" (if that is for some reason all people are needing to hear me say). But despite it being his worse full season since coming into the league in 2019, there were still a lot of good takeaways that are worth noting. He appeared in all of his starts (32) for the 5th straight season (just so happens to only have 5 full seasons in the show as well), he hit the 200+ strikeout milestone for yet again his 5th straight season (in on yeah his 5th full season in the bigs), and lastly, he lead all of the MLB in K/9 with an 11.5 which was 0.34 points higher than Garrett Crochet who lead the league in K's with 255. Keep in mind the Padres were also ranked 18th in the MLB for FRV (Fielding Run Value) with -1, to which he is now going to the 1st best in the Blue Jays, who had an FRV of 45... (6 more than the 2nd ranked team... A.K.A. the Jays were robbed of the best defensive team award but I digress)

And all that doesn't even take into consideration the good seasons he has been able to put together since 2019. See below Cease's notable stats over his 7 year (5 full seasons) Big League Career

7 Seasons (2019-2025) / CWS (5) & SDP (2)

WAR: 16.7

Record: 65-58

GS: 188

CG/SHO: 3/3

IP: 1,015.1

ERA/WHIP: 3.88/1.26

SO: 1,231

H/9: 7.6

HR/9: 1.1

BB/9: 3.8

K/9: 10.9

So, needless to say I don't think the Blue Jays "overpaid" for Cease what so ever. Was it a lot of money? of course but at the end of the day somebody was going to dish out a contract like that to him eventually, and the Blue Jays just didn't want to wait around and hope, they went out and got him early which I feel will only help them for the remainder of the offseason, as I don't think they are going to be done just yet.