Yesavage <\/a>had started 2025 at the very bottom of the pipeline, but finished in the Fall Classic.<\/p>\nOnly one starter had more strikeouts- Blake Snell. Snell had a measly two more batters retired, but spent nearly seven more innings on the mound than Yesavage. He might be entering into his rookie season, but that is no concern.<\/p>\n
Cease<\/p>\n
There were seven pitchers last season who amassed more than 210 strikeouts, and Cease was one (215). This isn’t an anomaly by any means, as it is the fifth consecutive season where he has done so, and with a better defense behind him, his ERA will continue to go down.<\/p>\n
Ponce<\/p>\n
He’s been in Asia since 2022, and in his last season in the KBO with the Hanwha Eagles he was not only named the MVP, but set a record for most strikeouts in a game, 18, and eventually finished the year with 252 in less than 181 innings.<\/p>\n
His stat-line for 2025 included:<\/p>\n
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![\"Cody](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/58e55365200d831230f550e6b9a8f10e.jpeg\"\/)
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Blue Jays new pitcher Cody Ponce during spring training practices. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
He led the league in wins, won the pitching triple crown and claimed the Choi Dong-Won Award, the KBO’s equivalent of the Cy Young for starting pitchers. This is his second consecutive season with an ERA under 2.25, as he appears to just be getting better and better.<\/p>\n
If Ponce looks anything like he did last season, it will be a huge win. But after his prior performance in the majors (7.04 ERA in 2021) it seems highly unlikely Schneider takes the gamble.<\/p>\n
Gausman![\"Gausman](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6510ef760129aee08fa22a84b2477d7e.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Kevin Gausman (pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth inning during game six of the 2025 MLB World Series at | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The now 35-year-old was a workhorse for Toronto last season as he made 32 starts, where he posted a 1.06 WHIP to complement 189 strikeouts and a 3.59 ERA. He is back on an upward trend after a drop off in 2024, where he threw 75 fewer strikeouts than the 2023 season in the same amount of starts.<\/p>\n
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However, despite spending more time on the mound in the postseason than Yesavage, Gausman had nearly 15 fewer batters retired.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, this should come down to a battle between Cease and Yesavage. This decision is anything but an easy one, even though there isn’t a wrong answer.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on www.si.com\/mlb\/bluejays\/onsi as Comparing Best Available Options As Blue Jays Figure Out Opening Day Starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most things in life, and sports, are uncertain and unless the organization has a member of last year’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,114,377,2554,54086,53,76,389,5056,57,4,8080,1271,151,382,1949,282,70,2553,5196,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-587781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blake-snell","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-cody-ponce","13":"tag-detroit-tigers","14":"tag-dylan-cease","15":"tag-kevin-gausman","16":"tag-kim-klement","17":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-mlb-world-series","20":"tag-shane-bieber","21":"tag-spring-training","22":"tag-tarik-skubal","23":"tag-the-athletics","24":"tag-toronto","25":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","26":"tag-torontobluejays","27":"tag-trey-yesavage","28":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116118144912009168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fdec758b3268b7b0b36c5455807b2a9c.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Yesavage](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e5b8457a673461f5199b2d780677b5c4.jpeg\"\/)
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