The early bird gets the worm, right? Not according to Brian Cashman. In the AL East arms race, the New York Yankees general manager is asleep at the wheel. The Boston Red Sox went out and bolstered their rotation with Sonny Gray, stoking the rivalry flames in the process. The Baltimore Orioles nabbed Taylor Ward via trade and added Ryan Helsley to their pen. But it’s the Toronto Blue Jays who are truly threatening to lap the field.

Just days after the Blue Jays went out and reset the starting pitching market with the massive seven-year, $210 million offer to land Dylan Cease, they went out and doubled down, agreeing to a three-year, $30 million contract with KBO sensation Cody Ponce.

Meanwhile, Cashman may or may not have been surprised by Trent Grisham’s decision to accept the qualifying offer, and reunited with Ryan Yarbrough, leaving the team in the same state that it was when the Blue Jays eliminated them in the ALDS, minus Cody Bellinger, of course.

The Blue Jays are threatening to lap the Yankees in the AL East arms race

Toronto is doing what a team with serious designs on contending should do. They’re not resting on their laurels following a World Series appearance in which they pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to the brink. Instead, they’re aggressively pursuing upgrades where they needed them most.

The Blue Jays’ 2025 rotation consisted largely of low-ceiling, high-floor veterans like Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, and Max Scherzer. Kevin Gausman, still a solid starter, was miscast as an ace. As a result, Toronto starters combined for a 4.34 ERA, which ranked 20th in baseball.

In adding Cease at the top, they aren’t getting a slam dunk, but they are getting a durable strikeout artist, who has two top-five Cy Young finishes over the last four seasons.

Ponce is the wild card. The former Milwaukee Brewers second-round pick moved on to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he’d make his big league debut. In parts of two seasons with the Pirates, he’d throw 55 1/3 innings and post a 5.86 ERA. From there, he moved to Japan’s NPB, where he saw some ups and downs.

In 2025, he migrated from the NPB to South Korea’s KBO, and it was there that he was transformed. There, Ponce added two miles per hour to his fastball, which sat at 93 as a member of the Pirates, reshaped his breaking balls, and began throwing a lights-out splitter. The result was a 17-1 record, 1.89 ERA, and 252 strikeouts over 180 2/3 innings, leading him to take home MVP honors.

The Yankees and Blue Jays finished with identical 94-68 records in 2025, but it is the Jays who have taken control of their destiny. The Yankees have hemmed and hawed about a vague budget, and as they watch the market move around them, risk getting priced out of finding legitimate solutions to any of their many needs.

By the time Brian Cashman wakes up from his hibernation, he could find a reality where the top options are all gone, and what’s left will have inflated price tags thanks to the movers and shakers like Toronto. If that happens, we’re going to be in for a long 2026.