Toronto Blue Jays among AL East teams pursuing San Diego Padres pitcher Dylan Cease
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Earlier this week, ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the San Diego Padres had discussed Dylan Cease with the Toronto Blue Jays.
It seems the interest from the AL East has come from every contending club in that division. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Blue Jays, Rays, Red Sox and Yankees have all checked in with the Friars to express interest.
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Jon Heyman says there's SIX teams in on Dylan Cease 🍿
Cease is an impending free agent who is playing on a $13.75MM salary. He's a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer if the Padres hold him all season.
Dylan Cease's track record and stuff would make him an extremely desirable trade target for the Toronto Blue Jays
As a luxury tax payor, they'd only receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round in the 2026 draft.
That's worth far less than they'd receive if they traded him, though they need to balance that against the hit it'd deal to the rotation for the stretch run.
The 29-year-old Cease is incredibly durable and has pitched at a top-of-the-rotation level in previous seasons.
His near-30% strikeout rate and 97 MPH average fastball still point to that ceiling, but he hasn't managed particularly strong results this year.
He carries a 4.59 earned run average across 113 2/3 innings. Some of that can be traced to a nine-run drubbing at the hands of the A's in their extremely hitter-friendly park in Sacramento back in April.
That's hardly the sole factor, though. Cease got on a decent run after that outing but has allowed a 5.21 ERA over his most recent seven starts.
He'd be the best rental rotation arm available, and teams would still view him as a surefire playoff starter.
The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays are all known to be in the starting pitching market.
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