TORONTO -- The Blue Jays, already with one of the best rotations in baseball, just flexed their muscle again.
Toronto signed right-hander Cody Ponce to a three-year, $30 million deal on Thursday, which is a fascinating move to land the 31-year-old who’s been reborn after four seasons pitching in Japan and Korea.
Last season, Ponce -- a 2015 second-round pick of the Brewers who saw parts of two big league seasons and pitched in the Minor Leagues for six -- made the jump to Korea with the Hanwha Eagles and it all came together with a 1.89 ERA and 252 strikeouts over 180 2/3 innings, a stunning number in a league full of quality contact hitters. That set a single-season strikeout record in the KBO -- a remarkable season that included an 18-strikeout game in May -- and earned him the league MVP Award. (Ponce’s teammate with Hanwha this season? Eagles legend and former Blue Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu.)
Ponce’s first three seasons pitching in Japan (2022-24) didn’t exactly catapult him back to MLB. His incredible 2025 season in Korea was built on an uptick in velocity, which now sits in the mid-90s and can creep up toward 97-98 mph. That’s a couple of ticks above where we saw him in MLB with the Pirates in 2020-21. He’s also added a splitter, a pitch the Blue Jays seem eternally drawn to. Kevin Gausman has one of the best splitters in the game, and Dylan Cease throws one, too, so Ponce is in good company.
How this all fits together, though, is fascinating.
If the Cease signing was the final rotation move of the Blue Jays’ offseason, everyone would have understood, but this is strength on top of strength. The Blue Jays now have six pitchers who can be easily projected as MLB starters, with a solid depth group beyond that.
MLB starters: Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Jose Berríos, Cody Ponce
Depth options: Eric Lauer, Bowden Francis, Gage Stanifer, Lazaro Estrada, Adam Macko
The times sure have changed in Toronto, haven’t they?
The easy response here is to trade someone, but this isn’t a video game. The Blue Jays didn’t expect Lauer to be one of the most important pitchers in this organization last season, but that’s the nature of baseball. They aren’t going to roll out the same five starters all season, so this isn’t a “problem” and doesn’t need to be “fixed” in any hurry, but that doesn’t discount the fact that this represents a surplus in value. Ponce is one of several options here who could be a relief or bulk option, but the Blue Jays will surely prefer to stretch him out first.
Berríos’ situation, in particular, feels most interesting given his opt-out following the 2026 season and two years remaining if he chooses to opt in. Late last season, following a downtick in velocity and a move to the bullpen, Berríos hit the IL for the first time in his MLB career. For such a respected pitcher who prided himself on making 32 starts a year, those were difficult moments for Berríos, as he was forced to watch the Blue Jays’ World Series run play out without him.
Beyond 2026, though, this becomes much clearer. In addition to Berríos’ opt-out, both Gausman and Bieber will be free agents. Cease is in place as the ace, and Yesavage could be the Blue Jays’ next great homegrown star, but there’s no logjam one year from now. Given that next offseason’s free-agent class isn’t exactly stacked, either, the Blue Jays have done well with these early pieces of business in Cease and Ponce.
Now the focus can shift fully to the bullpen, where a closer -- or at least competition -- remains a priority. They’ll need one big bat, too, with Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker atop both the market and the Blue Jays’ list.
Already the story of the year with their surprise run to the World Series, they’re starting to feel like the story of the offseason, too.