Blue Jays' Ponce plans to be 'biggest cheerleader' after season-ending surgery

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Cody Ponce knew the damage to his right knee was severe based on the “snap, crackles and pops” he heard before he collapsed to the turf. So the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander had already processed that his first season back in the majors since 2021 was over, after just 47 pitches and 2.1 innings, by the time an MRI confirmed the tear to his anterior cruciate ligament a couple of hours later.

As he sat in manager John Schneider’s office deep into that night after a fateful “PFP play I've made 1,000 times,” Ponce kept coming back to his three favourite words — adapt, compensate and overcome.

“Within the first hour or two, it was, all right, this is happening, might as well move forward, move on and keep going,” said Ponce, who rejoined his teammates for this week’s series against the Los Angeles Angels after season-ending surgery Friday. “So, adapt to the situation, if it's torn, it's torn, great, done. Compensate, well, what can I do? I can be part of my team and cheer them on. And overcome the situation that I'm going through and just get as healthy as I can and be ready whenever I can be ready.”

Barring an unusually fast recovery, that will be in time for next spring training, the second season in the $30-million, three-year deal he signed with the Blue Jays over the winter. It was a gutting setback for the team, one that started a chaotic cycle of roster churn that stabilized the past turn through the rotation, and for the 31-year-old, who had found himself on the mound during a dominant 2025 in the KBO.

Ponce had spent three years in Japan prior to that breakthrough after struggling badly with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021, and was set to be an integral part of the Blue Jays’ rotation this season. Instead, he’s working out what months of recovery will look like with medical staff, unsure how long he’ll need to be in a full leg brace, his surgical wraps only removed Monday, while making sure to keep his head in the right spot.

“I can't look at this as a bad situation,” Ponce explained. “I had somebody send me an old Chinese proverb of the Chinese farmer saying maybe. Somebody stole your horse, aw that's bad luck — maybe. You found all the treasure, that's good luck — maybe. You don't know what's going to happen until the other shoe falls. So, maybe this is what's supposed to happen. Maybe this is where I'm supposed to be. Maybe I'm just supposed to be the biggest cheerleader I can be for the year.”

Being as supportive to his new teammates as he can be is the plan then, one he’d been doing from a distance as he went for testing and waited for last week’s surgery. After nearly every game, Ponce has sent texts “just telling them, good job, you looked great, nice homer, great day, being in context as much as I can.”

In an ideal world, he’d want to travel with the Blue Jays throughout the season, but he can’t fly that often in his current condition. He’s likely to be stationed in Dunedin to mostly work at the Player Development Complex while visiting Toronto for periodic homestands.

For the moment, Ponce is “literally just taking one day and one literal step at a time,” making sure to maintain perspective, to keep his joy and to be grateful, lessons instilled in him by his parents and vital after his mother died of brain cancer in December 2017.

“I’ve already gone through hell. This isn't really hell for me. This is just a little walk through fire,” he said. “So mentally, I can never be in a bad spot because I've already been in the worst, but I just kind of keep moving forward,” looking for “ways to contribute but also ways to learn.

“I'm going to ask for all the scouting reports throughout the year so I can go through that and understand hitters who I haven't seen in a long time, that way I can become more knowledgeable for next year or wherever I'm able to step on a mound again. So, just do that,” he continued. “And I think the one thing I do a lot of is bring a lot of smiles and joy and laughter. I look at Myles Straw all the time, and I laugh at him just because of the way he looks. I mean, I told him today, dude, I saw you running around first base, and you look like a little lizard running on water. That's my guy. To be able to enjoy that, to have conversations and to laugh and to hear everything that everybody's going through and to still keep those relationships going, I'll do whatever I can for that.”