Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease Has One-Of-A-Kind Week As He Chases All-Time MLB Record

Last time he was in the mix for the Cy Young Award, Dylan Cease was feeling the stress of a long season. His Chicago White Sox were hovering around .500 and on the fringes of the playoff race (sound familiar?).

It was mid-August 2022, and the White Sox were on the road in Kansas City.

Cease visited a local art museum to take a breather from the pressure of baseball.

He walked in seeking stress relief; he walked out with a new hobby.

Cease was so inspired by the art he saw that he bought paintbrushes and art supplies and began painting.

A year later, while serving as a volunteer art instructor for a Chicago-area non-profit that helps adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, he shared his progress as an artist with CBS Chicago's Ryan Baker.

I kept doing artwork that I was impressed that I could do, because I have no artistic ability whatsoever. But just somehow, through effort and just perseverance, I kept making these paintings that I was really proud of. So it was like just kind of a fun, therapeutic, creative outlet that I really, really enjoy.
Dylan Cease

This past Tuesday, that "effort and perseverance" went on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto. Cease's painting "Eve of Toronto" was on display in the museum's Walker Court. The gallery is also selling an AGO x Cease collection of merchandise including prints, postcards, t-shirts, sweatshirts and totes, with the proceeds going to charity.

The line to see Cease's work stretched two blocks. Teammates wore the T-shirts during pregame warm-ups.

It did, however, leave John Schneider with a hole to fill on his office wall after he had commissioned Cease for the painting when the pitcher signed with the Blue Jays this offseason.

With Dylan Cease’s painting now on display at the @agotoronto, this now hangs in the corner of John Schneider’s office: https://t.co/AcGPobZFw1 pic.twitter.com/x56n6TuWPV
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) August 25, 2026

Cease's Dominant Run

On Friday night at Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, just over a mile from the AGO, Cease's artistry on the mound helped Toronto right the ship after a pathetic display against the Royals on Thursday.

The same effort and perseverance he puts into his art helped Cease strike out eight Mariners, the 19th consecutive start in which he has struck out at least seven.

Cease is only the third pitcher in MLB history to strike out seven or more in 19 straight starts in the same season, joining The Big Unit, Randy Johnson, and the bloody socked Curt Schilling. With two more such starts, Cease will have the record all to himself.

Most consecutive 7+ strikeout starts in a single season in MLB history:

1) Randy Johnson / Curt Schilling (20)
2) Randy Johnson / DYLAN CEASE (19)

Toronto’s ace is on an all-time dominant run 🍁 pic.twitter.com/JlAKnhCiXv
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) August 29, 2026

Unlike Johnson, "The Big Artist" is only 6'2", but his dominant run also includes the longest road scoreless streak, with his 42.0 straight scoreless innings on the road being the most since 1910.

Only four pitchers have had longer streaks since 1893, when the mound was moved to its current distance.

One of those other pitchers was Rube Waddell in 1905.

Cease is known for being obsessive about his hobbies, such as painting, yoga, meditation, collecting everything from vintage T-shirts to Pokémon cards, and even beekeeping. He became the first Blue Jay ever to wear #84 as a direct tribute to the 84 classic asanas in the Yoga tradition.

But his eccentricity pales in comparison to Waddell, who was so obsessed with fire engines that he would leave the mound mid-game when a fire engine would go by, jump on the back, and accompany the firemen to the scene of the fire.

Whoever relieved him certainly deserved the old Fireman of the Year award.

A Tight Cy Young Race

Cease and the Yankees' Cam Schlittler are in a neck-and-neck race for the AL Cy Young. It will go down to the last month, but in summary, Cease strikes out more batters and is harder to hit; Schlittler has better control.

Cease, though, is not only striking out more batters than Schlittler; he is doing so at a historic rate. His 13.0 K/9 would be the third-highest full-season mark in American League history behind only Gerrit Cole's 13.8 in 2019 and Pedro Martinez's 13.2 in 1999.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider has emphasized not only the quality of Cease's starts but also raves about his ability to go deep into games, which helps the Blue Jays bullpen in the days before and after his starts.

With a rotation decimated by injury and a bullpen so overtaxed that they signed Michael Lorenzen after he was DFA'd by the Rockies (the Rockies!), that is likely more valuable than Schittler's minuscule .1 edge in fWAR.

Stylistically, Schlittler paints like Rembrandt, with strong technique and precise control.

Cease is more like Jackson Pollock flinging paint at the floor with a turkey baster. In his prior AL stint with the White Sox, he led the league twice in free passes. Even this year, he is still walking 3.9 batters per nine, and his wildness and high ERAs had many skeptical when the Blue Jays signed him to a 7-year, $210M contract.

Cease vs. Schlittler for Cy Young race — Data Source: Fangraphs

A New Changeup Has Helped Fuel Cease's Success

In 2025, Cease was effectively a two-pitch pitcher, throwing either a four-seam fastball or a slider 83% of the time. This year, per Statcast, he throws those two pitches only 67% of the time and has added a new changeup, which he throws 12% of the time (up from 1% last year).

By Cease's own admission, the new changeup has terrible pitch metrics. He uses the changeup primarily against left-handed batters, throwing the pitch 19% of the time.

Most changeups from right-handed pitchers dive down and away from left-handed batters. Cease's drops 25 inches, which is almost 9 inches less than comparable changeups, and moves almost 9 inches less horizontally. By the metrics, it should be very hittable.

Except it is not. Batters are hitting just .107 and slugging .143 against the new change.

Christopher Sanchez and Tarik Skubal are widely regarded as having two of the best changeups in baseball among starters. They both get whiffs on 47% of their changeups this season. Cease is getting whiffs on more than 50%.

Part of the reason for the effectiveness in the changeup is the exaggerated difference in velocity from his four-seam fastball to his changeup. The average right-handed pitcher has an 8.4 mph difference between their four-seam fastball and their changeup; Cease's is nearly double that at 15.3 (97.1 mph fastball versus 81.8 mph changeup).

Not Having to Show His Best Stuff

Cease credits the changeup with keeping hitters off balance by not always seeing his "best stuff," which he sees as his fastball and his slider, which is 50% better than any other starter in baseball this year by Statcast's run value metric.

Last year, left-handed batters had an OPS of .735 against Cease. This year, with the help of his new changeup, it is almost 200 points lower at .536.

And for the sixth straight season, he has struck out over 200 batters, making him the first pitcher since his former teammate Chris Sale and his current teammate Max Scherzer to reach six in a row.

Scherzer had eight in a row from 2012-2019, and Sale had seven from 2013-2019.

Cease has struck out at least 214 each of those six seasons, and with 217 so far in 2026, is on pace to set a career high.

Dylan Cease strikeout streak — Data Source: Baseball Reference

Finding Balance

Early in his career, Cease was known for mistakes that snowballed into big innings and home runs.

Still, for years, he was known as a pitcher whose stuff was far better than his results.

Dylan Cease pitching against Seattle, Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Much as the changeup has served s as a counterweight to his fastball, painting helps him find balance with the intensity of baseball. With his self-deprecating nod to his lack of artistic ability, he would likely agree that his painting results are better than his baseball stuff.

His acrylic on canvas, now on display, is an abstract ode to his new home, filled with colors and flowers, and the word "Toronto" repeated many times. He shared with the Canadian Press how painting helps provide balance.

"It really just makes me happy, helps me feel good about life, helps me have something that's, I guess, opposite from baseball in the sense baseball's more warlike," Cease said. "And painting's more forgiving in the sense, I can just go put whatever I want on there and I'm not having to be perfect. I'm just having fun and enjoying it, so I think it's helps me balance my life and balance myself in a lot of ways."

The Road To The Record

If he strikes out seven or more batters in his next two starts, Cease will have the record for consecutive starts in a season with seven or more strikeouts all to himself. The Big Artist passes the Big Unit. The former White Sox overtakes the former Bloody Sock.

His next start is scheduled for Wednesday in Cleveland. Were he to strike out seven or more in that one, he would line up to go for the record on the evening of Labor Day in Sacramento, the last leg of a three-city cross-country road trip that may determine the Blue Jays' playoff fate.

In between Cleveland and Sacramento, Toronto visits Kansas City.

Cease would not be scheduled to start in that series.

But if he feels stressed about going for the record and needs to take a breath, he does know a good art museum.

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