Right-hander Dylan Cease will make his Toronto Blue Jays debut on Saturday afternoon against the visiting Athletics.
Cease, 30, was one of Toronto’s major free-agent signings in the offseason after going 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA in 2025 for the San Diego Padres.
The Athletics are scheduled to start left-hander Jeffrey Springs (11-11, 4.11 ERA in 2025) in the middle contest of a three-game, season-opening series. The Blue Jays posted a 3-2 victory in the opener on Friday.
Cease worked at tweaking his head movement during his delivery in spring training, taking a quick peek toward third base before looking home.
‘I just felt like when I was keeping my head on the target, I was yanking and cutting a lot,” Cease said recently. “So I wanted to see what would happen (with the tweak). It just kind of came to me. I was trying to visualize my body moving and how it’s supposed to feel, and that was an answer that I figured out. I definitely feel like I’m still learning it, but I feel even for it being early, I’m throwing a lot of strikes.”
Cease is 3-2 with a 5.97 ERA in seven career starts against the Athletics.
He will have a hard time matching teammate Kevin Gausman’s start on Friday. Gausman struck out 11, a team record for an Opening Day start, and allowed only one run on one hit and no walks in six innings of a no-decision.
Springs overcame a slow start last season. He was 2-3 with a 7.66 ERA in April before going 9-8 with a 3.72 ERA the rest of the way.
“I’m looking to just build off of what I did last year, and then just better quality outings, not struggling for a month and a half or whatever it was,” Springs said recently. “Eliminating the bad ones — they’re going to happen. It is what it is, but being able to bounce back and be a lot more consistent than I was last year.”
Springs is 3-1 with a 4.46 ERA in 12 career games (five starts) against Toronto.
The defending American League champion Blue Jays opened their 50th anniversary season with a walk-off win Friday when Andres Gimenez grounded an RBI single up the middle against Justin Sterner. Toronto’s rally started with two outs in the ninth with Kazuma Okamoto’s second single of the game. Ernie Clement chopped a double down the left-field line to set up Gimenez’s hit.
The Athletics had tied the game against closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth on the second homer of the game by Shea Langeliers, who was 3-for-4.
Gimenez also had a two-run triple in the fifth when left fielder Tyler Soderstrom and center fielder Denzel Clarke let his fly ball drop between them.
“It’s loud, and these guys haven’t played a ton together,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “It’s uncomfortable not knowing if your offside guy can cover that much ground. Perfectly hit ball that was fading back to Tyler. They got in each other’s vision. Neither made the play.”
“That was kind of the definition of a Blue Jays win the last couple months of last season,” Gausman said. “It feels like we were just here. It’s kind of right back to being with the boys and competing and having fun and going out there, giving everything you got.”
The Blue Jays lost the 2025 World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a Game 7 that went 11 innings. Hoffman allowed a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of that game as well.
–Field Level Media
