What Dylan Cease's Contract Means for the Angels
December 7, 2025 - Written by Isaias Acosta
The newest addition to Toronto's rotation 🇨🇦
— MLB (@MLB) December 2, 2025
Dylan Cease is officially a member of the @BlueJays! pic.twitter.com/LvRJXlZqSR
Last week, the Toronto Blue Jays made a big splash in the free agent market, signing SP Dylan Cease to a 7-year, $210 million contract. Per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the present day value of the contract comes out to be $184.6 million, which comes out to be just under $26 million per season. In doing this, Toronto set the market for free agent starting pitchers and made the Angels’ job a bit more difficult. So, what does this mean for the team’s pursuit of starting pitchers?
The Angels go into yet another offseason where they will be looking to add an ace, and after trading away Taylor Ward to the Orioles and the possible buyout of Anthony Rendon, the franchise seems to be gearing up to do just that. As always, financials will be an enormous obstacle during this search but if the franchise wants to seriously compete, they must be willing to spend the money. Dylan Cease is coming off a down year for his standards and was still able to secure a very lucrative contract from a Blue Jays team fresh off a heartbreaking World Series loss to the Dodgers. A $30 million a year contract seems to be the target point to be able to secure the services of the remaining high caliber starters. The names to keep in mind are Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, and Tatsuya Imai. Valdez and Suarez have both been All-Stars and have been solid starters the last few seasons, meaning they are geared to receive a contract around the same range in terms of value as Dylan Cease. Tatsuya Imai is projected to receive a contract in $154 million range.
With Perry Minasian likely going into his final season as GM and Kurt Suzuki only having this season to prove his capabilities as a manager, the team needs to go all in this year and put the best possible team out on the field. The front office must be willing to spend the money to get a Framber Valdez or a Ranger Suarez. As of today, Jered Weaver’s 5-year, $85 million contract extension in 2011 is still the largest contract in terms of pitchers in franchise history. That has to change this offseason.
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