5:41pm: It’ll be a $30MM guarantee, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The deal is pending a physical.
5:36pm: The Blue Jays are finalizing a three-year contract with free agent starter Cody Ponce, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The 6’6″ righty returns to the majors after an MVP-winning season in the Korea Baseball Organization.
Toronto continues to load up in the rotation on the same day they finalized their seven-year contract with Dylan Cease. They already had a strong top four with Cease, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber. Ponce and José Berríos project as the fifth and sixth starters in what looks like one of the strongest rotations in baseball. Eric Lauer, who pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 104 2/3 innings in a swing role this year, is down to seventh on the depth chart.
The three-year deal and $10MM average annual value suggests the Jays view Ponce as a starter. He doesn’t have much rotation experience in the big leagues, starting five of 20 appearances with the Pirates between 2020-21. Ponce struggled in that first look but has reinvented himself since moving to Asia. He pitched parts of three seasons in Japan before a breakout 2025 season with the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles.
Ponce took the ball 29 times and turned in a 1.89 earned run average across 180 2/3 innings. He recorded a league-best 36.2% strikeout percentage against a tidy 6% walk rate. Ponce led the league with 252 strikeouts overall and was the only KBO pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA in more than 100 innings.
The numbers alone would have been enough for Ponce to get back on the MLB radar. The more important factor for his contract was that his stuff has taken a matching jump. Ponce averaged 93.2 MPH on his fastball during his big league look, but a scout with a non-Toronto team told MLBTR in October that his velocity had climbed into the mid-90s. Eno Sarris of The Athletic wrote earlier this week that his average heater was in the 95 MPH range, and he has been clocked up to 98. Ponce has reportedly picked up a splitter — the carrying pitch for Yesavage and Gausman as well — and mixes in a cutter and curveball.
More to come.
Now go sign Bo!
It’s a bold strategy Cotten
Career numbers:
WAR -0.6
1W 7L 5.86 ERA
“Here’s 3 years and $30 million bucks! Quick, take it!”
He carved up the KBO, might be poised for a breakout.
Keyword: might
Looked superbad in the same KBO in ’24. Good luck! I would rather my Pads have signed Manoah for $2MM today than Ponce at $10MM per. Just IMHO.
The KBO is AAA, at best.
NPB is fairly equitable to AAA, KBO is more akin to A+/AA.
Look at Devin Williams or even Cease. Teams are all gambling that guys will bounce back
I like how you tell the whole story
There’s more to every story, Dusty. Anyway, I hope Ponce pans out! 🤙🏽🍻
You know he pounced on that deal…
“Let’s see if it works out for them”
Someone had to finish the Pepper Brooks quite. “Back to you 👈 Cotton”
So what happens to Berrios.
I assume it’s
Cease
Gausman
Yesavage
Bieber
Ponce
The Dodgers have used 26 starters in the last two seasons, no team makes it through a season with five…
Someone will 100% get hurt in spring training.
Someone might 100% be hurt right now. We often don’t find these things out until players report in spring training.
It is starting to feel like one of Bieber or Berrios is not going to be ready to start the year.
Either Bieber tweaked something during the playoffs or Berrios’ somewhat nebulous injury isn’t getting better. Otherwise, while I love depth and all, this feels like a little too much depth.
Hard to say really, Berrios still has a few more years on his current deal. Maybe a six man rotation-ish type thing? Ponce isn’t making Berrios money so maybe he ends up more swingman role. Maybe if they’re confident in what he can bring, see what the interest in Berrios is via trade. He’s put up a good amount of solid years, some average years and a few unspectacular ones. You might be able to get a good return for him, but as an O’s fan I caution any team that thinks they have enough starting pitching lol.
Chances are Yeasavage isn’t going to start the year in the bigs, they probably have him for 160ish innings next year so they will slow roll him to start the year.
But would still like to see lauer follow up his ‘25
Trade incoming?
Pause.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this.
Crazy money and 3 years absurd!!
I’m guessing I’m going to see a ballcap sports rage stream in a minute, just like when they signed Cease.
Very interesting. Hope for the best for Ponce (whenever he isn’t facing the O’s) as he had to go to another country to prove his talents before getting another opportunity. You love determination like that and its definitely an interesting storyline to track next season.
Now this is interesting. Pretty fun day here at MLBTR.
This management team seems determined to spend $700M somewhere along the way. Bo should get ‘er done!!
Jays aren’t messing around
Lotta dough for an unproven guy.
Ya I just looked at his baseball reference page — very spotty track record. Looks like he’s gettting paid off an 11 game run in Korea after posting an era of 7.6 something the year prior in the same league! Even his minor league stats are mediocre to just ok.
Ps: I’ve never heard of Cody ponce!
Pps: can anyone provide insight into who he is?
Thanks!
I liked Ponce coming up, but KBO-MLB isn’t a cakewalk of a move.
11 games? That was the NPB in 2024. he pitched 29 last year and set a KBO record for strikeouts in a season and the single game record.
Last time they gave a chunk of money to an unproven guy, Rodriguez, he failed as a starter, then ultimately failed as a reliever and was left off the WS roster
berrios–understand from an early article here that he might be hard to deal without adding a good deal of money–wonder where he fits in?
Swingman?
The Korean league is sort of High A to AA level. This is rather a bold move by the Jays, but a pretty decent gamble with their playoffs money.
You couldn’t be more wrong about the level of talent the KBO is. High A to AA is independent baseball. The KBO is MLB level
How many guys jump from KBO to MLB each year and succeed? KBO is not mlb level it’s a rung down at the minimum
KBO is nowhere near MLB level. It’s below Japan.
bridesmaids in the World Series, but not on the free agent market..
You can say what you want about the Santander deal but the best thing it ever did was that it signaled to prospective free agents to let them know that Toronto is a safe destination. No, they don’t pay you in CAD. Its ok to sign here!
Can’t actually say anything about the Santander deal yet anyways, it’s been one season. Sheesh.
Maybe. This strikes me as an overpay. Perhaps that’s the markup for having to ask players to come to a city that is turning more into New Delhi with each passing day.
He had a great season in Korea. It’ll be interesting to see the numbers he signed for with the Jays. I’m sure he would’ve been paid well in Korea to stay.
As a dbacks fan Merril Kelly was a revelation and he was our best and most clutch pitcher. So these guys do turn it around
Jays must feel like they are getting Black Friday pricing the way they are spending money!
Now, for Christmas, bring Bo back!
Bo and Tucker are next I suppose. If this is a game of Hearts, they’re trying to shoot the moon. Quick someone deal ’em the Queen of Spades.
If they’re playing Spades, they went Nil, and we’re not sure if their partner is holding the Ace yet.
Well, that covers the Sherzer
Bassitt money
???
What a nice payday for a guy who would have been offered a minor league deal this time last year probably. Good for him hopefully it works out he certainly looked lights out last year. Also with 2 KBO signings in one day it makes me wonder if even more KBO/NPB guys come back I know Jon Duplantier might be one to watch.
As a Jays fan should I be happy about this? Is signing the Korean leagues MVP a good thing? Are we going with an 8 man rotation lol?
I mean, assuming there is no luxury you cant hate it. But with the reality of a luxury and the need for Bo and a star closer + more pen help….I dont think we should be happy. But what do I know about the health of the Jays current starters.
There’s a lot of movement today.
1.Astros sign Ryan Weiss
2.Angels sign Alek Manoah
3. Blue Jays sign Cody Ponce
Over/Under 1.05 WAR in 2026 for the trio?
Waste of money
I suppose a Mets fan would be a good judge of that.
Mets wasted a lot of money on pitching last year, I guess they could have went with Montas 😉
I’m proud of the Blue Jays. After years of begging people to take their money, they are finally finding some takers.
Making it to the WS helps a lot.
$10 million AAV is a pretty decent deal. That’s even less than what most back of the rotation arms make anymore, so even if he ends up being a #4/#5 starter, the Jays might end up getting a steal.
It’s the years they are adding that is throwing me off
It seems like for cease and this deal the jays are adding years to force a yes.
I hope that 30MM is in CAD?
Those better be Canadian years!
I had no idea where this guy would sign, had to look him up when I filling out the contest. Blue Jays are on a roll!
That was fast after the last article.
Nutty.