Blue Jays' vision for Dylan Cease begins coming to life with all-star start

PHILADELPHIA – The Toronto Blue Jays wanted a creative way to name Dylan Cease the American League starter for Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game, so 10 minutes before a team gathering Sunday morning, the pitching department gathered before a whiteboard.

Cease, they’ve come to learn this season, loves painting, with one of his pieces hanging in manager John Schneider’s office back at Rogers Centre. Delivering the news in a custom “painting” featuring various tidbits about the ace was perfect they decided, so they took turns at what can loosely be called drawing features on the impromptu work. 

“If we had more time, we could have filled up that board, for sure,” said pitching coach Pete Walker.

As it stood, they did pretty well. 

Walker wrote “get in my legs” inside a sun, the phrase a reminder Cease often gives himself before and during outings. Someone put the resistance bands integral to his routine inside block letters spelling out “Philly” from the bottom up. There’s a cat – Cease loves cats – a baseball diamond with his name on the bump, the phrases “changeups are sexy” and “no one remembers a 1-hitter” plus the last name of Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.

The backstory?

“I said changeups are sexy at some point,” Cease said with a grin Monday, after the media day news conference announcing the starting lineups for the 96^th Midsummer Classic. “Since spring training – really for the last five years – I've wanted a changeup, but I've never been able to figure out how to get one to move right. That was the gist of that. After my last game (when he lost a no-hitter in the ninth at San Francisco), I said, ‘Man, nobody remembers a one-hitter.' And then Koufax is kind of a funny one. On my dad's side of the family, I've got some Jewish heritage, so I was talking to them and I'm like, ‘Where do you think I rank amongst Jewish pitchers all-time?’ We put Koufax one, of course.

“The painting was great,” he continued. “It's a very unique way to be told and it just shows that they pay attention to me as a person, and not just as a ballplayer.”

In a similar vein to the hitting coaches bringing in some toy dragons to try and help the team out of an extended cold spell last week, the gesture is demonstrative of the varied and creative ways in which the Blue Jays try to help their players maximize their potential.

That’s no small thing, as last winter, the presentation the team made to Cease on how he could perform more consistently – developing that “sexy” changeup, using the two-seamer more, better sequencing, finding ways to stay in his delivery – helped sway his decision in free agency, the deal sealed by $210 million over seven years.

“He had been hoping that he'd be in a place, on a platform where he is the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game, he is the guy in the ninth inning throwing no-hitters, he is the guy that is a lead No. 1 pitcher,” said Scott Boras, Cease’s agent. “That expectation and the people around him in the organization work beautifully. …

“Dylan expected all this,” he continued. “He has been waiting for this to arrive.”

The plan is for Cease to throw one inning Tuesday and he heads into his all-star outing with an American-League leading 148 strikeouts, second in the majors to the 167 by Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski. His 2.56 ERA is third in the AL, while his 3.7 WAR, as calculated by Fangraphs, leads the loop, ahead of New York Yankees rival Cam Schlittler’s 3.4.

Schlittler had been a leading candidate to start for the AL but said Monday he prefers not to pitch in the game, citing the need to focus on his team’s push for the post-season. 

Given the rivalry between the right-hander and the Blue Jays – Schlittler once called them “a team that’s going to BABIP the (poop) out of you” and said the club’s fans “are easy to rage-bait” – that only adds to the situation’s intrigue.

If Schlittler ends up being unavailable, that complicates the AL’s pitching plans, as several pitchers enter with various usage requests and his absence would leave Schneider with 11 pitchers for nine innings, a couple hiccups suddenly making coverage more difficult.

Cease can get the AL off on the right foot and he’s looking forward to doing his part.

“It's a massive honour,” Cease said of getting the start. “I'm really excited and I feel very grateful for it.”

Schneider said the calibre of the 30-year-old’s performance “is what tipped” his decision. “Part of it was me seeing it up close every day, but we get to see a lot of guys up close, and I think Dylan's performance made him very deserving of this honour.”

The Blue Jays were thrilled to celebrate that, as he joins Dave Stieb (1983, 1984), David Wells (2000) and Roy Halladay (2009) as the only pitchers in franchise history to start an All-Star Game. 

Team officials envisioned this type of performance when they signed him and “I still think he could get better,” said Walker. “You look at the last game, of course that was exceptional, but to do that on a consistent basis, not necessarily throwing an almost no-hitter, but to really pound the strike zone, limit walks and utilize all of his pitches to minimize his pitch count are things we're driving towards. Once he starts doing that on a consistent basis, he'll be in the talks for Cy Youngs and more all-star nods in the future, as well.”

With more paintings or other creative presentations sure to follow.