DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays’ 2026 season will begin as it should, with Kevin Gausman on the mound.
Gausman has been named the Blue Jays’ Opening Day starter, the third time he’s been given the honor but his first in Toronto. Entering the fifth and final year of his deal with the Blue Jays, it feels long overdue for the pitcher who’s represented this organization so well.
“I’m pumped for him, pumped for us. It’s about time he got one,” said manager John Schneider.
Gausman also got the Opening Day nod in 2017 with the Orioles and 2021 with the Giants. These three days, stretched out over a decade, capture Gausman’s incredible career, which has been defined by more than just its highs.
Back in Gausman’s days with the Orioles, he came up as the next big thing after being drafted fourth overall out of LSU in 2012. He never quite reached that potential, though, and began to bounce around the league, landing in Atlanta and Cincinnati, where he eventually landed in the bullpen. For a time, Gausman felt like another top prospect who would never make good on the hype, but then his career got its second wind.
Gausman caught fire with the Giants, his splitter developing into one of the best pitches in baseball, and those years earned him a five-year, $110 million deal with the Blue Jays. It’s been one of the best signings in Blue Jays history, and after watching José Berríos and Alek Manoah take the ball on Opening Day over the first four years, Gausman deserved at least one of these with the organization.
“I always think Opening Day should be a national holiday,” Schneider said. “After the first one, it’s just another start, but I think this is really cool. What goes into this is [Gausman’s] stuff, but also the trust factor with some extra hoopla, ceremonies and the timing being off a little bit. You have to navigate that and Kevin’s done that in big games before. When you’re trying to really put a really competitive season together, it’s great to have a guy who you trust and who’s been here a long time to get that started.”
On the field: Consistency and excellence
Let’s begin with the number of starts Gausman has made in his first four seasons: 31, 31, 31 and 32.
When you hand a starter a big contract, that’s what you dream of. If he does that with a 3.48 ERA and strikes out 9.7 batters per nine innings? You’ve hit the jackpot. Gausman is the combination of reliability and upside that managers dream of.
“He’s so consistent. When you look back at the last four years, he’s been so stable, not only with his performance but in the clubhouse,” Schneider said. “Everyone knows that he’s a family man and he’s got his two girls, and that’s hugely important to him, but baseball is also hugely important to him. He’s not the loudest character, but he knows what to do every single day. Our starting rotation has taken on this brotherhood and he’s been a huge part of it.”
In last year’s World Series run, Gausman just kept rising to the occasion. He posted a 2.93 ERA over 30 2/3 innings during the postseason, pitching with more passion than we’ve ever seen from him. There’s no shortage of tragedies with how the 2025 season ended, but Gausman deserved a World Series ring as much as anyone in that clubhouse.
Off the field: A worthy face for the Blue Jays
Blue Jays fans want to feel chosen. The club’s recent success and payroll increases have killed off any of those old narratives about whether players would come to play in Canada, but those still exist in the backs of the Canadian baseball fans’ minds.
Gausman didn’t just sign up to play in Canada, he’s embraced it.
“It’s so special,” Gausman said in a team video. “It’s something that I really didn’t understand when I first signed up to be a Blue Jay, but the more I’ve been here, the more you understand what that comes with.”
Along with his wife, Taylor, and their daughters, Sadie and Sutton, the Gausman family has become a fixture at Rogers Centre and represented the organization well in the community. This is what the Blue Jays dream of when they bring a big name to Toronto, and on Opening Day, fans will have another chance to show Gausman their appreciation for everything he’s given to this city.