Blue Jays Put Their Playoff Hopes in Dylan Cease's Hands
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After watching Cleveland Guardians righty Gavin Williams stymie the Toronto Blue Jays to the tune of no earned runs, two hits and 13 strikeouts over seven innings of a 6-1 Cleveland victory, Dylan Cease will now seek a similarly dominant performance on Wednesday night.
The Blue Jays' playoff chances and his own Cy Young hopes may depend on it.
Cease has been the anchor of Toronto's rotation throughout his first season with the club. But now, amidst a critical series against the team they are chasing in the wild card race, they desperately need him to rise to the occasion once more.
A bullpen day kept the Blue Jays afloat for most of Tuesday's series opener, as Spencer Miles, Ricky Tiedemann and Spencer Arrighetti combined to hold the Guardians to two runs over 5.2 innings before the doors blew open on Joe Mantiply and Michael Lorenzen.
However, Toronto continues to barely get by on a rotation that currently features Cease, José Soriano, a 42-year-old Max Scherzer and two bullpen days.
Blue Jays Need Cease to Come Through
In other words, the Blue Jays need Cease to come through every time through the rotation, but never more than Wednesday's outing vs. Cleveland. A loss tonight would put Toronto 3.5 games back in the race for the third wild card spot, with Soriano, Scherzer and plenty of uncertainty to come.
Fortunately, Cease is playing some of his best baseball across what has been an incredibly successful 2026 campaign. The 30-year-old, who is sporting a 9-5 record on the season with a 2.33 ERA and a league-best 217 strikeouts, has gone at least six innings while surrendering fewer than three runs and tallying at least eight strikeouts in each of his past three starts.
While the Blue Jays likely weren't envisioning Cease to be this critical to the team's postseason chances late in the season, it's ultimately big moments like this that landed the Milton, Georgia native his seven-year, $210 million contract last winter.
Cease's Start Looms Large in AL Cy Young Race
If you ask Cease, he would likely tell you that the playoff race is the only one that matters over the final month of the season. But winning his first career Cy Young trophy probably wouldn't hurt, either.
Cease is currently seen as being neck-and-neck with Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees in the AL Cy Young race. Schlitter owns the edge in ERA, WHIP and WAR, but trails in strikeouts and carries some question marks related to his viability down the stretch. His production dipped last season in the final month after a sensational August and he may not see as many opportunities to bolster his candidacy in the season's final games as the Yankees look to get their ace playoff-ready.
Needless to say, a standout Cease performance in a key playoff positioning battle could make things very interesting when it comes to the Cy Young.
Every game counts the same in the standings across a 162-game season. But with the Blue Jays' ace on the hill and lots on the line, this one is feeling just a little more important.
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Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.