‘One of the very best in baseball’

With pitchers and catchers set to report to Spring Training on Wednesday, the baseball off-season is officially over.

The Toronto Blue Jays had a busy off-season, with major additions – and departures – since their dramatic loss in Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in November.

MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson joined TSN Mornings on TSN1200 Tuesday morning to discuss the pitching staff, Spring Training storylines, and his expectations for the team in 2026.

“I think the Blue Jays’ rotation, how much it’s been upgraded, I don’t think it’s getting enough attention,” Matheson said.

Toronto’s big splash in free agency came when they signed starting pitcher Dylan Cease to a seven-year deal worth $210 million on Dec. 2 – the most ever given to a free agent in franchise history.

“This is the new [Kevin] Gausman I think, where you knew the upside was there,” Matheson said. “You knew the strikeout potential was there, and if the Blue Jays can just turn the knobs up a little bit more, you’ve got a guy who can be an ace. We’ve seen that talent in Cease, we’ve seen him lead pitchers in strikeouts, that’s there, but you need it to be consistent, and that’s what Cease was attracted to.”

The 30-year-old Cease pitched to a 4.55 earned-run average with 215 strikeouts in 168.0 innings in 2025 with the San Diego Padres. A down year by his standards, Cease has finished in the top five in Cy Young Award voting twice in his career (2022 and 2024).

“I found it interesting when he talked about it, he said ‘I know I’m good, I need a team that can make me consistent.’ I think he trusts [pitching coach] Pete Walker and the Blue Jays staff to do that,” said Matheson. “It’s a longer deal at seven years, but it’s $30 million a year – if you’re getting ace-calibre pitching, a guy who can get back-end Cy Young votes, which I think he can, it’s a heck of a deal.”

The Blue Jays also signed Cody Ponce, a 31-year-old righty who was brilliant with a 1.89 ERA pitching in Korea a year ago but who also has not pitched in the majors since 2021 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Those two, along with top prospect and last season’s playoffs superstar Trey Yesavage, feature prominently in a rebuilt rotation that Matheson believes has very high potential in 2026.

“[It can be] one of the very best [rotations] in baseball, and a lot better than last year,” Matheson said. “When we look at last year’s rotation – yes, [Max] Scherzer had cool moments in the playoffs, but in the regular season he pitched for half the season and his ERA was over five. Bowden Francis also pitched for over half a season in this rotation with an ERA over six. So slap those two together, you have one bad starting pitcher throughout the entire season. That’s gone now.

“The rotation, I think, has legitimately taken a major step forward. You look at the off-season Boston had, the Yankees will eventually get Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler, some of those guys back, but I think the rotation has the potential to be the best in the AL East and potentially one of the best in baseball.”

The Blue Jays ranked 19th in runs allowed (4.45 per game) in 2025, where six pitchers started at least 14 games – Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, Eric Lauer, Scherzer and Francis.

The team allowed both Scherzer and Bassitt to depart in free agency (though both remain unsigned entering Spring Training), and Francis is expected to compete for a depth role in camp. The expected rotation, according to Matheson, will include Gausman, Cease, Yesavage, Shane Bieber and Ponce, with Lauer and Francis additional depth options.

That leaves the team in an uneasy position with long-time starter Berrios, who struggled down the stretch in 2025 and finished with a 4.17 ERA in 30 starts.

The Berrios situation is one that Matheson is going to be monitoring closely throughout Spring Training, with no easy answers available.

“Berrios is the most interesting. This is a guy who has been their Opening Day starter multiple times, and now he is in a bit of an uncertain spot,” Matheson said.

“The way it ended last year was not good, with Berrios being unhappy with [his move] to the bullpen and going on the Injured List for the first time in 10 years. I’m also careful where I don’t want that to completely paint Berrios, because this guy was the Roberto Clemente Award nominee, he’s someone who I respect completely as a pitcher and as a pro. He has that reputation as a guy who never misses a start, who works out harder than anybody, and he has that for a reason.”

After the Blue Jays acquired Berrios at the trade deadline in 2021, the team signed him to a seven-year deal worth $131 million. The contract includes a player opt out after the 2026 season, and runs until the end of the 2028 season. That contract is going to make a trade difficult for Toronto to complete.

“It’s a bit awkward for everyone involved – if this was a video game, sure, trade him, get rid of the money, but it’s not,” said Matheson. “There’s still so many starters out there – including Scherzer and Bassitt, who Blue Jays fans know. No team is going to take on [Berrios’] contract right now when they can just go out and sign someone … Right now, if the Blue Jays were to swing that trade, they would have to eat a ton of cash, which they don’t want to do, and they’d probably have to include a prospect or two, which they absolutely don’t want to do. A lot of things need to break the right way, and I don’t see trade talks happening right now.

“The boring answer – and I think the right answer – is that this takes care of itself. Somebody gets hurt, somebody has a rough spring, something happens naturally along the way [to open a spot for Berrios], but it’s an uncomfortable spot.”

The Blue Jays also have former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, who was drawing rave reviews after striking out 82 in 44.0 innings across four levels in the minors in 2023 but has pitched just 17.1 innings over the past two seasons due to elbow surgery. Tiedemann has a chance to break into the big league club if he is healthy and performing this year, as Matheson detailed earlier in the off-season.

A manager can’t complain if they have too many options at starting pitcher, and the Blue Jays could be entering that conversation depending on how Spring Training plays out this year.