Cody Ponce To Undergo Knee Surgery
Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters, including Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, that right-hander Cody Ponce will have surgery to address the sprained anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The estimated return to play timeline is six months, so it’s highly likely his season is over. He is already on the 60-day injured list.
It’s an unsurprising but devastating blow for Ponce. He was making his team debut last week when he obviously injured himself trying to field a grounder. He collapsed on the ground in pain and had to be carted off the field. The next day, he was diagnosed with an ACL sprain, though he had avoided a full tear and surgery wasn’t definite.
The Jays did place him on the 60-day IL a few days later, so he was going to miss a few months regardless. Today’s news that he will indeed undergo surgery effectively wipes out any hopes of Ponce returning later in the year, unless he beats his expected timeline or the Jays play deep into October again.
It’s a sad outcome for Ponce, who was shaping up to be a nice comeback story. He pitched in the majors back in 2020 and 2021 but didn’t find success and wound up heading overseas. He pitched in Japan for three years and then had a dominant showing in South Korea last year. He gave the Hanwha Eagles 180 2/3 innings with a 1.89 earned run average, 36.2% strikeout rate, 5.9% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate. He garnered a lot of interest as a free agent this offseason and secured a three-year, $30MM deal from the Jays.
The Jays and Ponce were hoping he could return to Major League Baseball as a much better pitcher than he was a few years ago but that dream has quickly been dashed, or at least put on hold. Ponce will now turn his attention to rehabbing this injury, likely with an eye on realizing that comeback story in 2027, when it will have an extra layer.
For the Jays, their rotation has been severely tested this year. Bowden Francis required Tommy John surgery and is out for the season. Trey Yesavage, José Berríos and Shane Bieber are on the IL with less significant injuries. At the moment, the rotation consists of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Patrick Corbin, Eric Lauer and Max Scherzer, with some question marks in there as well. Lauer has been battling the flu and only lasted two innings last time out. Scherzer also only managed two innings last night due to some right forearm tendinitis, though the Jays are hoping he can make his next start.
Yesavage is already on a rehab assignment, so he shouldn’t be too far off from joining the group. Berríos and Bieber are throwing but haven’t yet begun official rehab outings. If those guys can get stretched out, then some rotation shuffling may be in order, depending on how things play out in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Select Austin Voth, Joe Mantiply
The Blue Jays have selected the contracts of right-hander Austin Voth and left-hander Joe Mantiply. Right-hander Lazaro Estrada and left-hander Brendon Little were optioned to the minors to make room for the pair on the active roster, while right-hander Cody Ponce and outfielder Anthony Santander were moved to the 60-day injured list.
Voth, 34, spent the early days of his career as a starting pitcher and swing man for the Nationals but last pitched in the majors as a member of the Mariners’ bullpen back in 2024. He spent last season overseas pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines, and posted a respectable 3.96 ERA in 125 innings of work across 22 starts. Prior to that, he had spent the previous few seasons in Seattle and Baltimore. He posted a solid 3.68 ERA with a 4.23 FIP in his 178 2/3 combined innings with the two clubs while working as a long relief arm. He struck out 22.1% of his opponents while walking 7.7%. He’s made just one appearance so far for Triple-A Buffalo after signing with the Jays on a minor league deal, but now he’ll be called upon to help eat innings in the team’s bullpen.
Mantiply, meanwhile, steps into Little’s role as a lefty middle relief arm for the Jays. Toronto’s late-inning mix is dominated by right-handers, with Louis Varland, Tyler Rogers, and Jeff Hoffman serving as the club’s three highest leverage arms. That leaves the Jays to carry a pair of lefty middle relief arms to play matchups with throughout the game. Those spots went to Mason Fluharty and Little to open the year, but Little’s disastrous start to the year (24.55 ERA in five appearances) led the club to make a change. Mantiply has parts of eight MLB seasons on his resume, most of which came as a member of the Diamondbacks. From 2021 to ’24, the lefty was a key piece of the Arizona relief corps and posted a 3.63 ERA with a 2.96 FIP across 236 outings. His age-34 season last year saw him struggle badly in his limited work, however, as he surrendered five home runs in just 9 2/3 innings of work. He’ll now look to put that rough year behind him and reclaim a key spot in a major league bullpen with Toronto.
As for Ponce and Santander, it’s hardly a shock to see them transferred to the 60-day IL. Ponce recently suffered an ACL sprain that’s expected to leave him sidelined for quite a while even if he doesn’t wind up requiring surgery. As for Santander, the switch-hitter underwent shoulder surgery that came with a five-to-six month recovery timeline back in February. Even as the veteran is now two months into that recovery window, he figures to remain out of commission for at least another 90 days. That’s well past the late-May date where his minimum stint would run out, so the move is purely procedural for him. Ponce can now be activated on May 30 at the earliest, but he too seems likely to be sidelined for quite a bit longer than that at this point.
Cody Ponce Diagnosed With ACL Sprain
5:22pm: The Jays have officially placed Ponce on the 15-day IL and recalled Estrada, per a club announcement.
3:25pm: Blue Jays manager John Schneider provided an update on right-hander Cody Ponce, who departed yesterday’s game with an injury. Ponce has a sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He has avoided a full tear and it’s still to be determined whether surgery will be necessary. Even if he does avoid surgery, he will miss “significant time” regardless, though the Jays are holding out hope he can pitch later in the year. Hazel Mae of Sportsnet and Mitch Bannon of The Athletic were among those to relay the information.
Time will tell exactly how it plays out as the Jays are still gathering medical opinions but it seems like Ponce is likely to miss a few months even in a best-case scenario. It’s a brutal blow for Ponce and the team. Ponce had spent the past few years overseas. He had an excellent 2025 season in Korea, giving the Hanwha Eagles 180 2/3 innings with a 1.89 ERA.
He parlayed that into a three-year, $30MM deal with the Blue Jays but that deal has begun in one of the most agonizing ways possible. Ponce was making his team debut last night when he tried to field a grounder in the third inning. He fell to the ground in obvious pain and was later carted off the field. The team initially announced his injury as right knee discomfort. It now appears he will miss the majority of the 2026 campaign, meaning his triumphant return to the majors will have to wait.
For the Jays, this adds another layer to the challenges they have been facing with their rotation depth. Each of Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber and José Berríos began the season on the injured list. The Jays were able to start the season in decent shape even without those guys, having a five-man group consisting of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Eric Lauer, Ponce and Max Scherzer.
Now that Ponce is out, the Jays will have an opening, at least for the short term. Yesavage, Bieber and Berríos are all throwing and could potentially be back in the mix in the near future. Yesavage seems to perhaps be the closest, as he is expected to throw 45 innings over three innings in a simulated game this week.
Until one of those three is ready to return, the Jays will need a fifth starter. Per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Jays don’t plan to use their off-days to run a four-man rotation, so they’ll need someone to take Ponce’s spot on Sunday. Ricky Tiedemann won’t be an option since he is also injured at the moment. The same goes for Bowden Francis, who will miss all of 2026 due to Tommy John surgery. Jake Bloss is recovering from last year’s surgery. Schneider listed Lazaro Estrada, Adam Macko, CJ Van Eyk and Chad Dallas as possibilities to start Sunday’s game.
Estrada seems likely to be recalled today, as Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reported last night. Multiple reporters, including Bannon, noted today that Estrada has a locker in the clubhouse. Ponce hasn’t been officially placed on the IL but it seems like Estrada will be recalled when that does happen. Whether Estrada is available to pitch on Sunday perhaps depends on if he is needed to log any innings between now and then. He made two appearances for the Jays last year, allowing seven earned runs in 7 1/3 innings. He also posted a 5.73 ERA in Triple-A last year.
Macko is another option already on the 40-man, although he hasn’t yet made his major league debut. He had a 5.06 ERA at Triple-A last year, pitching in a swing role. He pitched two innings of relief for Buffalo on Friday.
Van Eyk and Dallas are not on the 40-man roster, though that shouldn’t be an issue. The Jays already have two vacancies with Leo Jiménez and Angel Bastardo getting designated for assignment last week. They effectively have two more open spots since Anthony Santander and now Ponce are candidates to be moved to the 60-day injured list. Van Eyk had a 4.79 ERA in 126 Triple-A innings last year. Dallas had a strong 2023 on the farm, posting a 3.65 ERA. However, his ERA spiked to 6.21 in 2024 in a season that was cut short by injury, ultimately requiring Tommy John surgery. He just pitched three innings on Sunday, his first official game action since July of 2024.
The Jays will hope that whoever takes the spot in the coming days will be bumped out after a few turns, making it a short-term issue. The Ponce injury could also impact them in the long term. Each of Gausman, Bieber, Scherzer and Lauer are slated for free agency after this season. Berríos can opt out of his deal, though that seems unlikely at the moment. That means the 2027 rotation currently projects to include Cease, Yesavage, Ponce and Berríos, with some of the aforementioned young guys potentially stepping up.
In a perfect world, Ponce would have had a strong 2026 and established himself as a legit MLB arm going into 2027. If he ends up missing most or all of the remainder of the schedule, he will still be a question mark going into next season.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Cody Ponce Going For Imaging With Knee Discomfort
9:36pm: Ponce is going for an MRI tonight, manager John Schneider said postgame (relayed by Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). Francys Romero reports that the Jays are recalling Estrada from Triple-A Buffalo. That seems likely to be the corresponding move for a Ponce injured list placement, though it’s possible they’re simply looking for a fresh arm in the bullpen after Brendon Little and Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles logged 30+ pitches in tough outings tonight.
8:20pm: Blue Jays starter Cody Ponce left tonight’s season debut on a cart in the third inning. The team has only announced the injury as right knee discomfort.
Ponce stumbled while trying to field a chopper off the bat of Rockies center fielder Jake McCarthy (video provided by Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). The big righty was unable to field the ball cleanly, then tried stopping abruptly to pick it up. He tweaked his right leg, took a few more steps, then went down on the dirt a little to the left of first base.
After spending some time on the ground in clear discomfort, Ponce was able to get to his feet with help from trainers and teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He walked gingerly but under his own power to a cart and was taken off the field at Rogers Centre. Louis Varland was called upon from the bullpen.
The Jays will provide more details after Ponce goes for testing. He’ll surely be sent for imaging to determine whether there are any ligament issues. A timetable won’t be known until then. At the very least, it’s tough to see Ponce avoiding a stint on the 15-day injured list.
Toronto has one of the deeper rotations in MLB, as they arguably have eight viable starters. They’ve needed it with season-opening injured list stints for Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos. None of those are expected to be long-term absences. Yesavage, who is behind with a shoulder impingement, is set for a 45-pitch simulated game later this week. Bieber will progress to throwing off a mound on Friday, while Berríos is scheduled for a bullpen session tomorrow (all updates courtesy of the MLB.com injury tracker).
Even if he avoids serious injury, it’s a brutal break for Ponce. The 31-year-old was making his first big league start since 2021. Ponce pitched three seasons in Japan and had a dominant ’25 season with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. He leveraged the numbers and improved stuff into a three-year, $30MM free agent deal with Toronto. Ponce had fanned three hitters across 2 1/3 innings of one-run ball before the injury.
Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Max Scherzer and swingman Eric Lauer are penciled into the rotation. Toronto has off days on April 3rd, 9th, and 14th. They could get by using a four-man rotation and just one bullpen game into the middle of April. They’d probably prefer to stay on a five-man starting staff and take advantage of the extra days of rest early in the season.
Toronto doesn’t have much rotation depth in the upper minors. Jake Bloss and Ricky Tiedemann are also injured. Prospects Lázaro Estrada and Adam Macko are the other options on the 40-man roster. They each worked a couple innings out of the bullpen in their Triple-A season debuts over the weekend. Grant Rogers, Chad Dallas, CJ Van Eyk and recent minor league signee Austin Voth are non-roster possibilities for a spot start.
MLBTR Podcast: The Mets Sign Jorge Polanco, And The Braves, Blue Jays And Royals Make Moves
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Mets signing Jorge Polanco (2:40)
- The Braves making three signings: Robert Suarez, Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim (17:15)
- The Blue Jays signing Tyler Rogers and Cody Ponce (31:40)
- The Royals extending Maikel Garcia, signing Lane Thomas and trading Ángel Zerpa to the Brewers for Isaac Collins and Nick Mears (46:10)
- The Tigers making three signings: Kenley Jansen, Kyle Finnegan and Drew Anderson (57:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- Winter Meetings Recap – listen here
- An Agent’s Perspective with B.B. Abbott – Also, Cease, Williams, Helsley, And Gray – listen here
- Some “Classic Baseball Trades,” Nimmo For Semien, And Ward For Rodriguez – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Sign Cody Ponce To Three-Year Deal
December 11th: The Jays officially announced the Ponce signing today. According to The Associated Press, he receives a $3MM signing bonus and an $5MM salary for the 2026. He’ll make $11MM annually between 2027-28.
December 2nd: The Blue Jays are reportedly in agreement with free agent starter Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30MM contract. The deal is pending a physical and has yet to be announced by the team. The Jays have two openings on the 40-man roster and do not need to make a corresponding move. Ponce, a client of Excel Sports Management, 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.
Ponce throws harder and has better secondary stuff than Erick Fedde did when he returned to North America after his own MVP season in Korea. As a result, the 31-year-old gets an extra year and doubled the $15MM guarantee that Fedde received from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. Fedde, for what it’s worth, pitched well in his first year back before his numbers cratered this past season.
It’s a strong deal for Ponce, who tops MLBTR’s prediction of two years and $22MM. It’s by far the biggest payday of his career. Ponce received a signing bonus a little north of $1MM as a second-round pick by the Brewers in the 2015 draft. He did not come close to the service time to qualify for arbitration in his first stint in MLB and played on a $1MM contract with the Eagles.
The salary breakdown hasn’t been reported, but an even distribution of $10MM annually would push Toronto’s projected payroll to roughly $272MM (courtesy of RosterResource). The $10MM average annual value pushes their luxury tax projection above $280MM. The Jays are in the second tier and are taxed at a 42% rate on spending between $264MM and $284MM. That means they’ll pay $4.2MM in taxes for the first season of the Ponce contract. That’s a relative drop in the bucket given the amount the Jays are spending, but the payroll only seems likely to climb. They’d like to re-sign Bo Bichette and will almost certainly add a high-leverage reliever to join Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland at the back end.
Spending beyond the $284MM mark would raise their tax penalties and result in their top pick in the 2027 draft being moved back 10 spots. That doesn’t appear to be much of a deterrent for a team that forfeited its second and fifth-highest picks in next summer’s draft and $1MM from its international bonus pool to sign Cease. The Jays are all in after coming tantalizingly close to their first World Series in three decades.
If payroll does become an obstacle to re-signing Bichette or adding to the bullpen, the Jays could look to shop Berríos. He’s making $18MM next season and will need to decide whether to opt out of the remaining two years and $48MM on the deal after 2026. It’s not an egregious contract but looks above market for what’ll be ages 32-34 on a pitcher who has struck out fewer than 20% of batters faced in consecutive seasons. Berríos is a solid source of back-of-the-rotation innings, but the Jays would probably need to pay down some of the money and/or take back a slightly underwater deal in a trade.
The simpler path would be to keep everyone and open the season with a six-man rotation if no one suffers an injury during Spring Training. No team gets through an entire season using only five starters. The pitching staff logged a lot of innings this fall. Gausman and Bieber will be free agents after next season, and while Berríos doesn’t look like he’s trending towards an opt-out, that could change with a strong platform year. Lauer will also return to the open market next winter.
Aside from Yesavage, the Jays don’t have much in the way of upper level pitching prospects. Former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann is on the 40-man roster and will probably make his MLB debut in 2026, but he missed the entire ’25 season and has pitched 140 innings since being drafted in 2021. The durability concerns might push him to the bullpen, and even if the Jays want to give him another chance as a starter, they’re certainly not going to let him throw 150 innings. Jake Bloss is unlikely to be a factor until the second half after undergoing elbow surgery in May. The Ponce signing probably rules the Jays out on bringing back Chris Bassitt or Max Scherzer but doesn’t make a Berríos trade a foregone conclusion.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Ponce and the Jays were finalizing a three-year deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had the $30MM guarantee.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blue Jays Open To Trading Jose Berrios
The Blue Jays’ early signings of Dylan Cease and KBO returnee Cody Ponce have deepened a rotation that already included Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Jose Berrios. Lefty Eric Lauer and righty Yariel Rodriguez give Toronto a pair of quality swing options, too, and the Jays still have Bowden Francis and former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann (who should be recovered from 2024 Tommy John surgery) in the upper minors as well.
The magnitude of Ponce’s three-year, $30MM contract presumably puts him squarely into the rotation. Barring a move to a six-man rotation or a spring injury, Toronto will have more starters than rotation places available. Injuries can turn a “surplus” into a deficiency pretty quickly, particularly when it comes to pitchers, but the Jays are willing to trade Berrios, Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reports.
It’s easy to frame this as the Jays adding enough depth that they’re now willing to deal Berrios. That’d be the charitable (to Berrios) way of shaping things. The other and perhaps more likely angle is simply that Toronto wasn’t enamored with Berrios continuing as its fourth starter and has acted decisively with a pair of additions pushing the veteran righty down the depth chart.
Berrios, 32 next May, has been an iron man for the Jays and Twins throughout his big league tenure. He’s started at least 30 games every year since 2018, with the exception of the shortened 2020 season, when he started a full slate of 12 games. No pitcher has started more games (234) or totaled more innings (1367 1/3) than Berrios in that span of eight years.
Along the way, Berrios has generally been an above-average starter. He’s logged a 3.94 ERA, set down 22.6% of his opponents on strikes and only walked 6.8% of the batters he’s faced. Few starters have been this reliable for this long.
Be that as it may, Berrios’ more recent seasons have seen him trend in the wrong direction. After punching out 23.7% of his opponents from 2018-23, he’s dropped to 19.6% over the past two seasons. Add in a 19.8% strikeout rate in 2022, and Berrios has now been under 20% in that regard in three of the past four years. League average in that time has been about 22.5%. Berrios has spent much of his career working with plus command, but this past season’s 8% walk rate — while still slightly better than the 8.4% league average — was up considerably from the 6.3% mark he posted across four prior seasons.
The worrying trends don’t stop there. Berrios’ 93 mph average four-seamer in 2025 was the lowest of his career, while the 92.2 mph average on his sinker was his second-lowest (leading only the 92.1 mph he averaged back in 2019). He also surrendered the highest average exit velocity (90.3 mph) and barrel rate (11.3%) of his career. His opponents’ 42.5% hard-hit rate was the second-highest mark in his MLB run. Berrios has only yielded a hard-hit rate north of 40% in three of his 10 major league seasons. All three have come within the past four years. Unsurprisingly, given the dips in velocity, command and whiffs, Berrios has become more homer-prone; after surrendering an average of 1.17 homers per nine frames from 2017-23, he’s up to 1.43 since Opening Day 2024.
None of this necessarily makes Berrios a bad pitcher. He’s an ultra-durable source of reliable, if unspectacular innings. However, coming off a down season that ended with what was incredibly the first IL stint of his big league career (elbow inflammation), would Berrios match the remaining three years and $66MM on his contract? He’d be hard-pressed to do so — certainly once factoring in the opt-out provision he has following the 2026 campaign and the escalators that could push his remaining guarantee from $66MM to $70MM.
Currently, Berrios is guaranteed $24MM in both 2027 and 2028. Both figures would rise by $1MM if the right-hander pitches a combined 300 innings in 2025-26 and another $1MM if he gets to a combined 350 innings. With 166 frames under his belt in 2025, he’d only need 134 innings in 2026 to secure an additional $2MM and a tougher but plausible 184 innings to tack on yet another $1MM per season. Given his durability, it’s likely that Berrios will at least be promised at least $50MM over two seasons when weighing his opt-out opportunity next winter — and possibly two years and $52MM.
All of that coalesces to make Berrios a difficult player to trade. He’ll pitch next year at 32, so it’s hardly out of the question that he rediscovers some of his waning ability to miss bats and/or limit walks and boosts his profile a bit. In that instance, however, Berrios might very well opt out of the two years left on his contract beyond the 2026 season. On the other hand, if the veteran righty continues to see his strikeouts dip and/or see his walks creep further north, he could be more of an innings-eating fifth starter who’s trending down and owed $24-26MM in both his age-33 and age-34 campaigns.
Essentially, any team trading for Berrios would probably do so with the hope that he’d rebound closer to his 2021-23 form — at which point he’d likely opt out. But to acquire him, they’d also have to take on the downside of Berrios maintaining his recent status quo or even slipping further, thus making that $48-52MM owed to him in 2027-28 wholly unappealing.
It’d be a surprise if the Jays were to find an interested team that was willing to both take on the entirety of Berrios’ remaining contract (to say nothing of doing so and surrendering young talent). In all likelihood, the Jays would need to include at least some cash or take back another contract of some note at a different position. That said, starting pitching is always in demand, and there are always teams looking for creative ways to swap weighty contracts that might better fit their current roster or payroll objectives.
One other fascinating wrinkle to consider: Berrios ended the 2025 season with 9.044 years of major league service time. That places him 128 days shy of 10 years. With MLB Opening Day set for March 25 and the trade deadline set to fall on Friday, July 31, Berrios would reach 10 years of service the day before next summer’s deadline. At that point, he’d acquire 10-and-5 rights — 10 years of MLB service, including the past five with the same team — thereby granting him full veto power over any trade scenarios. Currently, Berrios can block trades to a slate of eight teams.
Toronto can still carry Berrios into the 2026 season and enjoy the depth he provides. In all likelihood, injuries are going to thin out the top end of the current rotation options. That’s just reality for any big league club in today’s game. But the Jays have viable rotation alternatives, and the looming realization of Berrios’ 10-and-5 rights mean that trading him next winter will be even more complicated if he chooses to forgo his opt-out. There’d also be quite a bit of pressure to try to push a deal across the finish line in late July in the event that the Jays are intent on dealing him this summer.
It’s a complicated scenario, to say the least. Berrios’ contract is underwater but not an albatross. He’s a durable source of steady innings but no longer a borderline All-Star. The Jays can try to trade him this winter or during the season, but they’ll have not only the “clock” of the trade deadline but also the artificial clock of Berrios’ forthcoming full no-trade rights. Moving Berrios now would free up some more space for a run at re-signing Bo Bichette or trying to lure Kyle Tucker to Toronto, though the Jays would probably need to take on some other costs in order to get a deal done. It all makes for a fascinating thread to follow ahead of next week’s Winter Meetings, where convoluted trade packages and high-profile changes of scenery are the norm.
Blue Jays Still Exploring Rotation Additions After Dylan Cease Deal
The Blue Jays made a big move to upgrade their rotation by signing Dylan Cease to a seven-year deal, but they may not be done. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that the Jays have remained engaged on the starting pitching market even after agreeing to terms with Cease. The report mentions that the Jays had interest in Joe Ryan of the Twins and MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals prior to the trade deadline, while also suggesting the Jays have some interest in free agents Michael King and Cody Ponce.
The Toronto rotation currently projects to include Cease, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos, with guys like Eric Lauer, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis in the mix as well.
That’s a pretty strong group but there are some question marks. Bieber’s decision to trigger his $16MM player option has led to speculation he may not be 100% healthy. He could have taken a $4MM buyout and returned to free agency, only needing to get $12MM to come out ahead, but a new deal would have required him to pass a physical. To be clear, that’s entirely speculative. There has been no public indication anything is wrong with Bieber, but it’s one possible explanation for why he didn’t pursue a larger deal. Another explanation could be that he simply wanted to stay with the Jays for another year before heading to free agency after a fully healthy season.
Beyond that, Gausman turns 35 in January. Yesavage had a tremendous debut late in the year but is still light on big league experience. Berríos had a mediocre 2025 and finished the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation, though he is supposedly going to have a normal offseason. Lauer worked both as a starter and a reliever in 2025 and seems likely to do so again next year. Tiedemann has been on prospect lists for years but already had workload concerns before Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2025 season. Francis had a good showing in 2024 but was held back by shoulder problems this year.
There’s also the long-term picture to consider. Gausman, Bieber and Lauer are all slated for free agency after 2026. Berríos can also opt-out of his deal at that time. There’s reportedly been some consideration of trading Berríos but that will be a challenge considering his health status, results and opt-out. The general point is that there’s not a lot of long-term certainty. Signing Cease upgraded the rotation for the upcoming campaign and beyond. Yet another acquisition could do the same.
Gore is a pretty straightforward trade candidate. The Nationals are rebuilding and aren’t likely to be contending for a while. Gore is controlled for two more years and is represented by the Boras Corporation. It’s not true that Boras clients never sign extensions but it’s a decent bet that Gore and Boras are looking forward to free agency.
It’s notable that the Jays were interested in him ahead of the deadline but his situation has changed a bit since then. He was dominant through the All-Star break in 2025, as he had an 3.02 earned run average, 30.5% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate at that time. But he struggled down the stretch and went on the IL twice, first due to shoulder inflammation and then an ankle impingement. His results suffered and he finished the year with a 4.17 ERA.
The Nats are getting interest in Gore this offseason but could perhaps wait until the upcoming trade deadline if they don’t get offers to their liking. He is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.7MM next year, with another arbitration control beyond that. The Nats have very little on their books and don’t need to move him for financial reasons. If the Jays want to circle back to Gore, they might have to put a notable prospect package on the table.
The situation with Ryan is somewhat analogous. He is also two years away from the open market, with a projected $5.8MM salary next year. He has been a pretty consistently above average pitcher in his career. In his 641 1/3 innings, he has a 3.79 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate.
The Twins seemed to kick off a rebuild or retool or reset or whatever at the deadline. They traded a number of relievers, including Louis Varland to the Jays, and sent Carlos Correa back to Houston. Coming into this offseason, many expected Ryan and other Twins to be on the trade block but Minnesota’s president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has downplayed the idea that he needs to continue subtracting from the roster.
If the Jays can’t find solutions on the trade market, they could sign another free agent. Nicholson-Smith reports that King “could be” of interest. Though the Jays wouldn’t sacrifice prospects directly, they would still be hurting their farm system. King rejected a qualifying offer from the Padres and is therefore tied to the associated penalties. Since the Jays paid the competitive balance tax in 2025, they would have to forfeit two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus pool space. Cease also rejected a QO from the Padres, so the Jays have already paid that price. If they were to end up with Cease and King, that would mean giving up a total of four draft picks and $2MM from their bonus pool.
It’s unclear if the Jays would be willing to go down that road. It presumably depends on what kind of financial price they would have to pay to sign King. He seemed on track for a nine-figure deal before injuries hampered him in 2025. MLBTR predicted him for a four-year, $80MM deal but it’s possible King looks for a shorter deal with opt-outs, so that he can return to free agency with a healthier platform season.
He had a really strong run from the second half of 2023 through the beginning of 2025. With the Yankees in 2023, he was blocked and stuck in a relief role. As the Yanks were playing out a lost season two years ago, they let King take a rotation job. He performed well and was flipped to the Padres prior to 2024, which eventually became his best season. From August 24th of 2023 through May 18th of 2025, he tossed 267 2/3 innings with a 2.72 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. FanGraphs had him seventh among pitchers in the majors in wins above replacement for that span, behind only Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler, Logan Webb, Cole Ragans and Cease.
The latter months of 2025 were marred by injury, however. A nerve injury in his shoulder put him on the shelf for several months. He came off the IL in August but left knee inflammation sent him right back there. He returned in September and wasn’t amazing, allowing ten earned runs in his final 15 2/3 innings. The Padres gave the Game Three start in the Wild Card round to Yu Darvish, who was 39 years old and battling elbow problems which would require surgery a month later, instead of King.
It all makes King one of the more interesting free agents of the offseason. He was a borderline ace for a while there but also has only one big league season with more than 15 starts. Teams likely have varying opinions on what they expect from him going forward.
As for Ponce, he’s also a wild card, but for different reasons. His MLB track record is small but he’s been pitching well overseas. He just wrapped up a season in which he tossed 180 2/3 innings for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization with a 1.89 ERA. His 252 strikeouts were a single-season KBO record. He was named the league MVP for his dominant season but remains unproven in North American ball. Regardless, it has been reported that he could earn $30MM to $40MM on a three-year deal.
Time will tell how aggressively the Jays go after another rotation upgrade. They still have needs elsewhere, including the back of the bullpen. Bringing in an impact bat, such as Kyle Tucker or reuniting with Bo Bichette, seems to be on the to-do list as well. RosterResource projects the Jays for a $263MM payroll and $272MM competitive balance tax figure next year. Those numbers were $258MM and $283MM at the end of 2025. It’s unclear how much farther they can push things but perhaps their deep playoff run in 2025 has created some extra spending capacity in 2026.
Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images
Latest On Cody Ponce
Right-hander Cody Ponce left South Korea this past weekend to travel back to the United States, per a report from Bae Young-Uen of the Korea JoongAng Daily. Ponce and his wife welcomed a daughter in early November and had been planning to remain in South Korea through the end of the year as a result, but interest in the right-hander has picked up enough that he’s traveling back to North America earlier than anticipated (presumably for some in-person meetings).
Interest in the 6’6″ righty indeed appears strong. Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic reported this morning that Ponce could more than double the $15MM guarantee secured by Erick Fedde in his return to Major League Baseball from the Korea Baseball Organization two offseasons ago. Clubs are generally expecting Ponce to command a three-year contract, per The Athletic report. Fedde’s $15MM guarantee is the largest a North American pitcher has received upon returning from the KBO, so doubling that (or more) would establish a new precedent.
Topping $30MM would be fairly sizable risk on a 31-year-old (32 in April) who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 and has never had much big league success. Ponce, however, was recently named the KBO MVP after a historically dominant season. Pitching to a 1.89 ERA in 180 2/3 innings with the Hanwha Eagles, Ponce set the single-season strikeout record (252) and the single-game strikeout record (18) in South Korea’s top league. He fanned a comical 36.2% of his opponents with a mammoth 16.5% swinging-strike rate and just a 5.9% walk rate.
Back in 2020-21, Ponce threw 55 1/3 innings for the Pirates, who’d acquired him from the division-rival Brewers. The former second-round pick was roughed up for a 5.86 ERA in 55 1/3 innings and struck out only 19.6% of his opponents.
Things have changed for Ponce since that first MLB run. He’s spent three years pitching in Japan and a fourth (2025) in Korea. The 255-pound righty has added substantial velocity, jumping from a 93.2 mph average fastball with the Pirates to what The Athletic’s Eno Sarris suggests was a 95 mph average with the Eagles.
Evaluators who spoke to MLBTR last month ahead of our Top 50 Free Agent List (where Ponce ranked 39th) offered similar reviews, noting that he sat 94-96 mph and topped out at 98 mph. Ponce has also added a splitter and kick changeup that have missed bats. A scout who spoke to MLBTR brought Ponce up unprompted when discussing other free agents from Japan’s NPB and the KBO, opining that he might top $20MM. That was before free agency opened in earnest.
If there was any doubt about Ponce’s looming return to MLB, the Eagles’ actions since season’s end likely erase that. The JoongAng Daily report indicates that Hanwha has already effectively replaced Ponce by signing 26-year-old righty Wilkel Hernandez, who spent the past several seasons pitching with the Tigers’ Triple-A club. If the Eagles felt there was any chance of retaining their ace and reigning MVP, they’d surely have waited, as KBO teams are restricted on the number of foreign players they can roster.
Cody Ponce Has Drawn Interest From MLB Teams
Former MLB pitcher Cody Ponce is generating interest from MLB clubs after a dominant season in the KBO. Francys Romero reports that numerous teams have scouted the right-hander over the course of the 2025 season.
Ponce, 31, was Milwaukee’s second-round pick in 2015. Four years later, the Brewers flipped him to the Pirates ahead of the deadline in exchange for Jordan Lyles. After five seasons in the minors, Ponce made his MLB debut for Pittsburgh in 2020, and from 2020-21, he appeared in 20 games (five starts) at the big league level, pitching to a 5.86 ERA and a 4.38 SIERA in 55 1/3 innings. Following the 2021 season, the Pirates released him so he could sign with NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Over two seasons with the Fighters, Ponce was solid if unspectacular, making 24 starts with an ERA about 10% higher than league average. The highlight of his tenure with the club was the no-hitter he threw in 2022. Unfortunately, the righty struggled tremendously in 2024 after leaving the Fighters and signing with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Although he improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio, his groundball rate fell by about five percentage points, and he pitched to a 6.72 ERA in 15 games (12 starts). Some of that was surely the result of bad luck – his .382 BABIP was 20 points higher than that of any other NPB pitcher (min. 50 IP) in any of the previous five seasons – but nonetheless, he ended up spending almost as much of the season with the Golden Eagles’ farm team as he did with the NPB club.
In 2025, Ponce opted for a fresh start in South Korea, leaving the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to sign with the Hanwha Eagles. His move to the KBO turned out to be just what he needed. Over 29 starts and 180 2/3 innings, the 6-foot-6 right-hander pitched to a league-leading 1.89 ERA. Ponce set the KBO single-season record with 252 strikeouts and also set a new single-game record in the KBO by punching out 18 opponents. Ponce’s velocity has taken a notable step forward. After sitting 93.2 mph with his heater back in 2020-21, he now sits 94-98 mph and has added a kick changeup that wasn’t part of his repertoire during his MLB run.
Ponce also finished tied for the KBO lead in wins, securing the Triple Crown as he led the Eagles to an 83-57-4 record in the regular season – and an appearance in the Korean Series. His stellar performance earned him the Choi Dong-won Award, given annually to the best starting pitcher in the league.
The last two winners of the Choi Dong-won Award, Erick Fedde (2023) and Kyle Hart (2024), both signed guaranteed contracts to return to Major League Baseball after their award-winning seasons in the KBO, so it stands to reason that Ponce could pursue an MLB deal of his own if his goal is to end up closer to home. While he struggled during his brief stint with the Pirates, that was a 55-inning sample from five seasons back.
Ponce’s stuff has since ticked up, and his more recent accomplishments against NPB and KBO hitters could certainly convince a team to look past the reasons the Pirates released him all those years ago. Ponce throws harder and misses bats at a higher rate than either Fedde or Hart did during their time in South Korea. If Ponce indeed opts for a return to North American ball, a multi-year deal — perhaps even one topping Fedde’s $15MM with the White Sox — shouldn’t come as a major surprise.