What's next? With Cease signed, Blue Jays have the most momentum in baseball

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Blue Jays aren’t just running it back, they’re trying to run farther. They’re not just sending a message to the rest of baseball, they’re fiddling with the knobs on the speakers to make sure everyone hears.

Tuesday afternoon’s press conference was no accident. These grand unveilings are typically reserved for small rooms with a couple dozen reporters and a row of cameras in the team’s home city. But when the stage of the Winter Meetings is sitting empty, why not use it? There sat Ross Atkins, Dylan Cease and super agent Scott Boras on the podium at the front of the media center, a converted ballroom lined with desks and large enough to hold a few basketball courts.

It didn’t matter if you were there for the press conference or not, you had to hear it -- bellowing out over the speakers for every media member inside and every rival front-office executive passing through the maze of hallways outside. Cease, who signed a seven-year, $210 million deal on Dec. 2, showered praise on the Blue Jays, calling them his best opportunity to reach his full potential. Pair that with a big, aggressive contract offer from Toronto to completely jump the market, and the rest wasn’t complicated.

“They made it to the World Series,” Cease said bluntly. “There's not much else that has to be said. It shows that they have a championship-caliber team.”

This is a new era of Blue Jays baseball. As crushing as that Game 7 loss to the Dodgers was in the World Series, the Cease signing has kicked the Blue Jays back into fifth gear. There’s immediate momentum again, and the rest of the league is noticing. They have no choice.

“I've always teased Ross [Atkins] over the years that I've always felt that Toronto should be clearly one of the top five standards in Major League Baseball,” Boras said. “I think that they are now reaching that pinnacle, and certainly their performance on the field shows that.”

Again, Boras being on that podium, praising the Blue Jays, is no accident. This is part promotion, of course, as Boras wants the baseball world to know that he just landed his prized pitching client $30 million a season, but it’s also important that Boras -- who has jabbed at this organization in the past -- is suddenly singing its praises. From chairman Edward Rogers down through the front office, coaching staff and medical staff, Boras had only the kindest of words.

This is all about momentum. Right now, no team in baseball has more.

The Blue Jays can’t and won’t ride this Cease signing into Spring Training, either. More is needed, and obviously, that conversation begins with one of Bo Bichette or Kyle Tucker.

This offseason will continue to revolve around Bichette and Tucker until they find new homes. The sense here is that the Blue Jays are waiting on both markets to unfold before wading in with offers, if they eventually choose to, and neither player feels close to a decision right now. Toronto felt that pitching was its most important area of need coming into the offseason, but with the additions of Cease and Cody Ponce (still pending), they can shift their attention to the lineup and bullpen now.

What if they land neither player, though? This is no prediction, just a matter of backup planning that the Blue Jays have to be prepared for. With Kyle Schwarber off the market, there’s still a crowded second tier of position players, but the Blue Jays would need to feel that they’re upgrading significantly over a player like Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes or Ernie Clement, as examples.

Right now, the trade market doesn’t offer as many opportunities. Ketel Marte of the D-backs is a hot name out there, but is an extremely unlikely target for the Blue Jays in this market.

In the bullpen, the Blue Jays had interest in Edwin Díaz, who signed a reported three-year, $69 million deal with the Dodgers on Tuesday, but so did every relevant team in baseball. That annual value clearly went beyond the Blue Jays’ comfort zone, though, and being “in on” players who sign elsewhere rarely matters.

Robert Suarez remains arguably the top free-agent reliever available and the Blue Jays have been interested in Pete Fairbanks, who they know well from his time with the Rays.

The question will keep coming: “What’s next?” And that question is coming from everywhere now. The Blue Jays earned a spot at the center of the baseball world with their postseason run, and here at the Winter Meetings, they’re cementing their place.