The Blue Jays are reportedly in settlement with free agent starter Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30MM contract. The deal is pending a bodily and has but to be introduced by the crew. The Jays have two openings on the 40-man roster and don’t must make a corresponding transfer. Ponce, a consumer of Excel Sports activities Administration, returns to the majors after an MVP-winning season within the Korea Baseball Group.
Toronto continues to load up within the rotation on the identical day they finalized their seven-year contract with Dylan Stop. They already had a robust high 4 with Stop, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber. Ponce and José Berríos challenge because the fifth and sixth starters in what seems to be like one of many strongest rotations in baseball. Eric Lauer, who pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 104 2/3 innings in a swing position this yr, is right down to seventh on the depth chart.
The three-year deal and $10MM common annual worth suggests the Jays view Ponce as a starter. He doesn’t have a lot rotation expertise within the huge leagues, beginning 5 of 20 appearances with the Pirates between 2020-21. Ponce struggled in that first look however has reinvented himself since transferring to Asia. He pitched components of three seasons in Japan earlier than a breakout 2025 season with the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles.
Ponce took the ball 29 instances and turned in a 1.89 earned run common throughout 180 2/3 innings. He recorded a league-best 36.2% strikeout share towards a tidy 6% stroll charge. Ponce led the league with 252 strikeouts total and was the one KBO pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA in additional than 100 innings.
The numbers alone would have been sufficient for Ponce to get again on the MLB radar. The extra vital issue for his contract was that his stuff has taken an identical bounce. Ponce averaged 93.2 MPH on his fastball throughout his huge league look, however a scout with a non-Toronto crew informed MLBTR in October that his velocity had climbed into the mid-90s. Eno Sarris of The Athletic wrote earlier this week that his common heater was within the 95 MPH vary, and he has been clocked as much as 98. Ponce has reportedly picked up a splitter — the carrying pitch for Yesavage and Gausman as effectively — and mixes in a cutter and curveball.
Ponce throws more durable and has higher secondary stuff than Erick Fedde did when he returned to North America after his personal MVP season in Korea. Consequently, the 31-year-old will get an additional yr and doubled the $15MM assure that Fedde acquired from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. Fedde, for what it’s price, pitched effectively in his first yr again earlier than his numbers cratered this previous season.
It’s a robust deal for Ponce, who tops MLBTR’s prediction of two years and $22MM. It’s by far the largest payday of his profession. Ponce acquired a signing bonus a little bit north of $1MM as a second-round choose by the Brewers within the 2015 draft. He didn’t come near the service time to qualify for arbitration in his first stint in MLB and performed on a $1MM contract with the Eagles.
The wage breakdown hasn’t been reported, however a good distribution of $10MM yearly would push Toronto’s projected payroll to roughly $272MM (courtesy of RosterResource). The $10MM common annual worth pushes their luxurious tax projection above $280MM. The Jays are within the second tier and are taxed at a 42% charge on spending between $264MM and $284MM. Meaning they’ll pay $4.2MM in taxes for the primary season of the Ponce contract. That’s a relative drop within the bucket given the quantity the Jays are spending, however the payroll solely appears prone to climb. They’d wish to re-sign Bo Bichette and can virtually definitely add a high-leverage reliever to affix Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland on the again finish.
Spending past the $284MM mark would increase their tax penalties and end result of their high choose within the 2027 draft being moved again 10 spots. That doesn’t look like a lot of a deterrent for a crew that forfeited its second and fifth-highest picks in subsequent summer time’s draft and $1MM from its worldwide bonus pool to signal Stop. The Jays are all in after coming tantalizingly near their first World Sequence in three a long time.
If payroll does develop into an impediment to re-signing Bichette or including to the bullpen, the Jays might look to buy Berríos. He’s making $18MM subsequent season and might want to resolve whether or not to choose out of the remaining two years and $48MM on the deal after 2026. It’s not an egregious contract however seems to be above marketplace for what’ll be ages 32-34 on a pitcher who has struck out fewer than 20% of batters confronted in consecutive seasons. Berríos is a strong supply of back-of-the-rotation innings, however the Jays would in all probability must pay down a few of the cash and/or take again a barely underwater deal in a commerce.
The less complicated path could be to maintain everybody and open the season with a six-man rotation if nobody suffers an damage throughout Spring Coaching. No crew will get by a complete season utilizing solely 5 starters. The pitching workers logged a variety of innings this fall. Gausman and Bieber can be free brokers after subsequent season, and whereas Berríos doesn’t appear like he’s trending in direction of an opt-out, that might change with a robust platform yr. Lauer may also return to the open market subsequent winter.
Other than Yesavage, the Jays don’t have a lot in the best way of higher degree pitching prospects. Former high prospect Ricky Tiedemann is on the 40-man roster and can in all probability make his MLB debut in 2026, however he missed your entire ’25 season and has pitched 140 innings since being drafted in 2021. The sturdiness issues may push him to the bullpen, and even when the Jays wish to give him one other likelihood as a starter, they’re definitely not going to let him throw 150 innings. Jake Bloss is unlikely to be an element till the second half after present process elbow surgical procedure in Might. The Ponce signing in all probability guidelines the Jays out on bringing again Chris Bassitt or Max Scherzer however doesn’t make a Berríos commerce a foregone conclusion.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Ponce and the Jays have been finalizing a three-year deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had the $30MM assure.
Picture courtesy of USA In the present day Sports activities.
