Blue Jays’ World Series drive inspired Dylan Cease to sign with Toronto

Dylan Cease had nothing but good things to say about the Toronto Blue Jays and his future with his new team. He was officially introduced as a member of the Blue Jays at the Winter Meetings, and Cease, who signed a seven-year, $210 million contract is more than optimistic about how the next seven years will go.

"They've proven that they have championship-caliber players and obviously a good process. That was probably the number one thing," Cease said adding that getting better was also a priority for him. "And then from there, it was also how would they help me maximize and develop and basically reach my potential more often? That was important to me. That was probably the second-biggest consideration."

Blue Jays’ World Series drive inspired Dylan Cease to sign with Toronto

Ever since Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro arrived in the Blue Jays organization, they had preached that building a winner will make Toronto a desirable place to play. That premonition has become a reality with the Cease signing.

"Over time as we went through some down years in the time that Mark and I were there, we poured into the resources that help players improve," Atkins said at that same press conference. "As that started to bubble up into wins, we then poured more money into resources around free agency and investing in players more long-term in a significant way."

"You could tell they built a really impressive culture," Cease added. "They want to win, and it was obvious." And it's also obvious that Cease wants to win as well. The 30-year-old right hander has been in the league for seven seasons and has been a part of four different playoff teams, but none of those teams have won more than a single round.

In 2020, the Chicago White Sox made it via the expanded postseason that year, but lost in the first round to Oakland, with Cease pitching in just one inning as a 24-year-old. The next season the White Sox were Central Division champions with Cease enjoying a breakout 3.0 bWAR season. But the playoffs didn't go so well with the White Sox losing 3-1 to the Astros.

Cease was sent to the San Diego Padres ahead of the 2024 season, and Cease helped the Padres earn a Wild Card berth that year. After beating the Atlanta Braves 2-0 in the Wild Card series, they were eliminated by the LA Dodgers in the NLDS in a series that went five games. This past year, the Padres were once again a Wild Card team, but they lost in the Wild Card series 2-1 to the Chicago Cubs.

It's hard to be sent home so early in the postseason when you've put up the numbers that Cease has posted over his career. There's no doubt that Cease, like everyone in the baseball world, was glued to the World Series and seeing what the Blue Jays accomplished certainly made him think that it was something he would like to be a part of. Cease also said he had a few Blue Jays contacts that he reached out to, to get a sense of what playing for Canada's only team was like.

Cease said he reached out to Kevin Gausman and said, "As I asked around, no one had any negatives to say about it. The consensus has been you're going to love the city, you're going to love the organization." And the organization is clearly already in love with the idea of Cease being at the top of their rotation for years to come.