Sources: Blue Jays, Dylan Cease reach 7-year, $210M deal - ESPN

Free agent starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who has made at least 32 starts in each of the past five seasons, has reached a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Wednesday.

With the deal, which is pending a physical, the Blue Jays add to an already formidable team that won the American League pennant and advanced to the World Series, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deciding Game 7.

Cease, 29, has been a reliable front-line starter for the past five seasons, ranking fourth in that span in pitcher WAR, ahead of Tarik Skubal, Max Fried and Framber Valdez.

The right-hander has alternated between dominant seasons and, given the quality of his stuff, disappointing ones. In 2022 and 2024, Cease finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting, respectively, while going 28-19 with a 2.84 ERA. In 2023 and 2025, he went 15-21 with a 4.57 ERA.

Cease has vertically oriented movement due to his higher slot, a fastball/breaking ball-heavy power approach (at least 80% fastball/slider to both righties and lefties) and an elevated walk rate at times paired with a big whiff rate.

His slider in particular fell off last year, going from the game's most valuable by runs above average in 2024 to opposing hitters slugging .374 against it in 2025. Still, though, Cease is coming off posting a career-best strikeout rate of 29.8% and putting up a fielding independent pitching score of 3.56, a slight improvement when compared to his average from 2021 to 2024.

Those peripherals, when coupled with his age and the deficiencies of the other available starters, made him one of the most attractive pitchers in free agency.

Cease was tendered a $22.025 million qualifying offer by the Padres,