TORONTO — Remember back to that magical summer of 2015 when David Price made his electrifying debut in front of a sell-out crowd at Rogers Centre? Almost 11 years later, it was now Dylan Cease’s turn.
“He was great,” acorrding to Erine Clement’s assessment. “[I’ve] been looking forward to seeing him pitch and being behind him instead of in the box. Awesome to see him work, and he pitched great.”
“It was a blast,” Cease said of pitching in front of his first home crowd at Rogers Centre. “The minute I walked out, everyone was cheering and being extremely supportive. That was really cool.
“It is an electric atmosphere, so I do think that makes a difference.”
There’s the first strikeout for Dylan Cease as a Blue Jay!
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The 30-year-old Cease set the tone right out of the gate for his overwhelming swing-and-miss introduction to Blue Jays fans, who brought the noise even before the first pitch arrived, providing him with a pair of loud ovations as he walked along the warning track both to and from his pre-game warm-ups, waiving to the crowd as he went past them.
They came ready to bring it, and so did he.
It was one of the primary sources behind his dominance over the A’s — with his explosive four-seamer, which sat 99 m.p.h. and touched 100 five times, both occupying over 80 per cent of his arsenal — as it induced 15 whiffs on 21 swings (71 per cent), resulting in four of his 12 strikeouts (all swinging).
Part of what makes Cease so unpredictable, though, is that, while the four-seamer and slider are essential to his success, they’re not his only pathways to it. Beyond those two elite-level weapons, each accounting for four punchouts, the remaining four came via his sinker, knuckle curve, sweeper and kick-change (one each).
Strikeouts, of course, typically lead to elevated pitch counts and shorter starts. For Cease, he only logged six innings or more in 11 of his 32 starts last season with the San Diego Padres. Schneider mentioned during Saturday’s pre-game conference with reporters that he’d like to see his overpowering starter induce more early outs in 2026 to help prevent that trend from repeating.
The Blue Jays skipper wants Cease to trust the defenders behind him. That, as he revealed Saturday, was part of the organization’s free-agent pitch to him and his agent Scott Boras during the winter.
In comparison, Kevin Gausman (+14) and Shane Bieber (+10) each finished among the top four in baseball, thanks to the Blue Jays’ Gold Glove-calibre team defence.
At the same time, when you’re striking out as many batters as Cease did on Saturday, you don’t need to rely on the guys behind as much. However, as Schneider’s latest web gem proved, as well as Giménez’s quick-turning, inning-ending double play after the Blue Jays starter departed with runners on the corners with one out in the sixth inning, they’ll be there to pick him up when he needs them to.
“It makes a massive difference,’ Cease said. “Davis saved me today, and that’s winning baseball right there.”
Max Scherzer, of course, knows exactly what winning baseball looks like. He’s been a part of many winning cultures in his future Hall-of-Fame career, and that’s precisely what the Blue Jays have built with their starting rotation. So, after Cease’s day was done, the 41-year-old — who’ll make his season debut on Tuesday versus the Colorado Rockies — went over to his rotation mate to debrief his first start as a Blue Jay.
“Anything he says, I definitely listen to with a lot of focus,” Cease explained of their in-game meeting in the dugout. As someone who’s been there, done that and has seen it all, there’s no better resource to have at your disposal than Scherzer, who operates as a part-time assistant pitching coach when he isn’t starting.
While Scherzer is at the tail end of his Cooperstown-destined career and Cease is in the prime of his, beginning the first season of a seven-year deal in Toronto, this franchise is fortunate to have both in its corner.