Cease’s triple-A – Dylan Cease returned to the mound in triple-A on Thursday with the Buffalo Bisons against Worcester, working four innings and striking out six while surrendering five earned runs and two home runs. The Blue Jays continue to wait for pitching reinforcements as
For four innings, Dylan Cease gave the Toronto Blue Jays something they’ve been waiting on: real pitching again.
Back in game action on Thursday with the Buffalo Bisons, the right-hander faced the Worcester Woo Sox and covered four innings, throwing 75 pitches with 50 coming for strikes. Cease allowed six hits, five earned runs, and two homers. He struck out six and walked one.
The 30-year-old—listed at six-foot-two—reached an average of 97.0 m.p.h. and topped at 98.9 on his fastballs. Across the outing, he mixed his pitch profile with 21 sliders, nine changeups, eight sinkers, and eight knuckle curves. He finished with 14 swings-and-misses, with seven coming on his slider.
Cease moved smoothly early, needing just seven pitches to work through a scoreless first inning. Trouble arrived with two outs in the second and third.
In the second inning, he allowed back-to-back hits—an RBI single to Canadian Matt Lloyd followed by a two-run homer to Tsung-Che Cheng. He managed to escape that three-run frame with his second strikeout of the game.
Worcester struck again in the third when Braiden Ward led off with a 384-foot homer to right field off a 2-1 Cease slider. Allan Castro added to the Worcester lead later in the inning, scoring Vinny Capra with a two-out, 111.4 m.p.h. double down the right-field line.
After that, Cease steadied himself. He threw a scoreless fourth inning and then ended his outing.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider had already pointed toward a quick path back, saying Tuesday that Cease may need just the one rehab start before returning to the big-league rotation.
That’s the hope for Toronto as it waits for pitching reinforcements to arrive. with Cease now back on the field after a left hamstring strain. Cease was placed on the injured list on May 25. He suffered the injury during a start against the Pittsburgh Pirates a day earlier. when he appeared to shake out his legs after delivering a pitch to Spencer Horwitz. After a mound visit from team trainers and manager John Schneider. Cease initially stayed in the game. but was removed mid-at-bat against the next hitter. Brandon Lowe.
Before the injury, Cease had been one of Toronto’s offseason anchors working exactly how the team wanted. The Blue Jays’ biggest off-season acquisition posted a 3.05 ERA with 92 strikeouts over his first 11 starts and 62 innings for the new team.
Dylan Cease Toronto Blue Jays Buffalo Bisons Worcester Woo Sox MLB rehab assignment triple-A left hamstring strain John Schneider
Five earned runs already?? Rehab starts are supposed to be easy, not a disaster.
So he’s rehabbing his hamstring and still throwing 97 mph? Honestly that’s crazy. But the article said 5 earned runs and 2 homers so like… did it even help?
I don’t get it, they said he may only need one rehab start. If he’s giving up homers in 4 innings, how is that ‘quick’ lol. Maybe the Woo Sox are just stacked or the strike zone was off.
Hamstring strain but he topped out at 98.9?? Sounds like they’re rushing him back anyway. And now waiting on ‘pitching reinforcements’ like it’s a video game. I swear these teams always act surprised when the bullpen can’t cover for the rotation.