The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t overhaul Dylan Cease. They widened the lane.
That’s the difference between the version San Diego lived with and the one Toronto is getting now. The fastball is still a centerpiece.
The slider is still a weapon. The strikeouts are still piling up.
But Cease is no longer leaning so hard on those two pitches that hitters can sit on the pattern and wait for it to repeat.
In his final season with the Padres, his four-seamer and slider made up 83 percent of his pitches. That kind of heavy diet brought plenty of whiffs, but it also came with real risk.
Cease struck out 215 batters in 168 innings, yet his 4.55 ERA told a different story, and too many outings slipped away when his fastball command wavered or hitters stopped chasing the slider. Without a trustworthy third pitch, the whole operation could go sideways fast.
Toronto has changed that by forcing the arsenal to breathe a little. This season, Cease is using his fastball and slider about two-thirds of the time, and the rest of the mix now includes a changeup, sinker, knuckle curve and sweeper. The changeup is the pitch that really stands out, especially when he’s facing left-handed hitters.
Last season, Cease threw just 37 changeups in all. They came in at 78.3 mph, and even Cease called it an unreliable trick offering. Now the pitch lives in the low-to-mid 80s and comes out with much better arm speed, which makes it look far more like something hitters have to respect.
By mid-June, he was using the changeup 19 percent of the time against lefties. Opponents had gone 4-for-20 in plate appearances that ended with the pitch, and it produced a 63 percent whiff rate.
The movement isn’t what hitters expect from a classic changeup, either. It doesn’t dive or run in the usual way.
It stays up longer and can look like a slower fastball, which makes it tougher to pick up when the tunneling is working. More than anything, it changes how the at-bat plays out from the start.
Left-handed hitters can’t just build everything around the fastball and slider anymore. The changeup scrambles their timing, gives Cease another option early in counts and makes his best pitches harder to forecast.
The numbers back up the adjustment. After his most recent start, Cease had a 2.42 ERA with 201 strikeouts in 137 2/3 innings. He became the first AL pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts this season, and he’s now done it in six straight years.
It’s the kind of stability San Diego could have used. Injuries pushed the Padres into stretches where they were running with only two traditional starters and patching the rest together with bullpen games and piggyback setups.
Cease’s seven-year, $210 million contract is why Toronto has him in the first place. But the bigger takeaway is simpler than the price tag. The Blue Jays took a pitcher with ace stuff and made him harder to map.
In Other News...
Manny Machados Familiar Slump Is Becoming A Padres September Problem
Manny Machados August has looked a lot like a player searching for the right gear at the wrong time. The Padres third baseman has gone through long stretches of quiet at the plate, with his production leaning heavily toward singles and far less of the extra-base damage San Diego usually counts on from him. On some nights he has looked locked in, but the overall pattern has been inconsistency at a moment when the lineup can least afford it.
San Diego enters September with a narrow grip on the NL Wild Card race, and Machados bat sits right at the center of that tension. The Padres do not need him to carry the entire offense, but they do need more than brief flashes if they want to protect their position down the stretch. A familiar slump has a way of feeling bigger in the final month, and for a team trying to stay ahead in a crowded race, every quiet series from one of its biggest hitters tightens the pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Still Face A Real Sung-Mun Song Question
Sung-Mun Song has given the Padres a little bit of everything since arriving, just not much at the plate. In 62 games, he has shown the kind of plate discipline and defensive versatility that keeps a player in the mix, while also flashing above-average fielding and baserunning that make him useful in more than one spot. For a team that has spent plenty of time patching together its roster, that sort of flexibility still carries value.
The larger question is whether there is enough offensive growth left for Song to become more than a limited role player in San Diego. His power and contact quality have lagged, even after injuries and time in the minors complicated his path, but his track record in the KBO offers at least a reason to think there may be another gear somewhere in there. The Padres do not need him to be a star, but they do need to know whether the upside is real or whether his current profile is close to the final product. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Pulled Off A Gritty Comeback After An Early Scare
The Padres had to work through an awkward early turn Tuesday, falling behind 5-1 before settling in and putting together a 7-5 comeback against the Twins. San Diegos offense did enough to erase the deficit, while the pitching side was forced to adjust after an early exit in the opposing dugout changed the shape of the game.
Minnesota starter Casey Mize was hurt when he slipped on the dugout steps and sprained his ankle, though imaging came back negative and he is day-to-day. From there, the Padres took advantage of the opening, with Griffin Canning handling the middle innings to steady things before Mason Miller finished the job for his 32nd save, another reminder that San Diego can survive a rough start when the game stays within reach. [Read more 🡒]