The Blue Jays' big free-agent pickup is a strikeout machine

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here .

After whiffing on their top targets the last two years, the Toronto Blue Jays finally connected on a big free agent last night, reportedly agreeing to a seven-year, $210-million US deal with talented pitcher Dylan Cease. 

The right-handed starter, who turns 30 next month, went 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA in 32 starts last season for the San Diego Padres. But you have to look beyond those unsightly traditional stats to get a true sense of Cease's quality. And what the underlying numbers show is a strikeout artist of the highest order.

Last season, Cease struck out 215 batters over 168 innings. That works out to 11.5 Ks per nine, which was the highest rate in the entire major leagues. Over the course of his seven-year career, which started with the Chicago White Sox, Cease has fanned 10.9 hitters per nine innings. That's the third-best rate in the history of baseball among guys who have pitched at least 1,000 innings.

The price Cease pays for all those strikeouts is a lot of walks. Last season, he issued 71 of them — a rate of 3.8 per nine innings. That ranked third-worst in the majors, and it also happens to be his career average, so it's not like he just had an unusually wild year. In fact, since he became a full-time big-leaguer in 2020, Cease leads the majors in both total strikeouts and walks and is tied for the most wild pitches.

Cease is also a bit hit-and-miss in terms of his performance from year to year. In 2022 with the White Sox, he finished second in Cy Young voting after going 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA and leading all American League pitchers with 6.4 Wins Above