In a bold move, the Toronto Blue Jays signed Dylan Cease to a 7-year-$210 million contract. Yowzah! That’s a lot of do re mi for a guy who posted a 4.55 ERA in 2025. During the season, some here in Chicago, speculated that the Cubs were a) interested in Cease b) going to trade for him c) never going to spend more than $1.98 on anyone ever again.

Unfortunately, most believed if a or b happened, they’d lose him after the regular season because of c. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of faith in the front office, Cubs fatalism from the last century or fear he might break down. Let’s pretend they did trade more prospects and ended up watching the World Series from home, that would be a second player they lost due to not wanting to pay fair market value. That would be too much for most Cub fans.

I cited his high ERA (4.55) because I just read an article downplaying the ERA and suggesting that some ersatz acronyms suggest it wasn’t that bad and that Toronto is looking beyond the crappy number and at other numbers. Yet, if he had a sub 3 ERA, they would have said that ERA was a relevant stat. A good baseball writer (and or GM) can find stats to make their case for any player.

Whether this contract sets the market for free agent starting pitching or not is up to Scott Boras because he represents two of the other guys on the market. It sounds like a conflict of interest to me. However, this bold move by the team that lost Game 7, puts a ton of pressure on the division and other GM’s looking for a quality arm.

A few GM’s are glad that Toronto might have overpaid because they can tell their fans that they made good faith offers that just fell short. We’ve heard this before on both sides of town in Chicago.

What do Cease, Garrett Crochet, and Chris Sale now have in common?