Happy Thanksgiving open thread: Dylan Cease gets paid by the Jays

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The offseason free agent market feels like it’s starting to cook. The Winter Meetings don’t get underway until December 7 in Orlando, Florida, but on Wednesday, the Toronto Blue Jays came to agreement with free agent starting pitcher Dylan Cease.

The seven-year, $210 million contract is a risky one for the Blue Jays, but well worth it. The soon-to-be 30-year-old right-hander has seen some wild swings in results the past few seasons. However, his underlying numbers have remained pretty steady and Cease continues to rack up a lot of whiffs and strikeouts. In the short term at least he should be a big boost in the Blue Jays quest to get back to the World Series and finally claim a title.

Pitching is always the most highly sought commodity, so it’s possible that Cease coming off the board will kickstart things as teams suddenly worry about getting left behind. We’ll see if the usual frenzy of pitcher signings that typically follows a top free agent getting taken off the market occurs over the next few days or not.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to noted that about four million yearly of Cease’s salary will be deferred. Take note, Tigers. There are ways of speading out the pain should you decide to try and keep Tarik Skubal in Detroit.

In the meantime, everyone have a nice day with family and friends, and may the Detroit Lions be victorious.