Blue Jays are forming among the best rotations in baseball

Stop additionally turns into the seventh-highest-paid pitcher in baseball with a $30 million common annual wage, which slots in behind the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Zack Wheeler, Jacob DeGrom, Blake Snell, Gerrit Cole and Corbin Burnes. 

The 29-year-old is coming off an up-and-down 2025 marketing campaign with the San Diego Padres, the place he went 8-12 whereas posting a 4.55 ERA with 215 strikeouts in 168 innings pitched. 

Previous to that, he’s collected three double-digit win seasons, together with a glowing 2022 marketing campaign with the Chicago White Sox, the place his 2.20 ERA landed him a runner-up end within the AL Cy Younger race.

Stop will now be a part of an already formidable rotation that helped take the Blue Jays to Recreation 7 of the World Collection final season, and his addition might be an enormous enhance of their probabilities of getting again to the dance and ending the job this time round.

Dylan Stop takes Toronto’s rotation from good to nice

The Blue Jays beginning 5 was robust and deep in 2025, however with Stop now within the fold, they’ve elevated their upside and depth on the place multi functional transfer.

Stop has an ace-caliber repertoire, and heading to Toronto to work with their pitching employees ought to do wonders for him.

The Blue Jays haven’t had a pitcher throw 200+ strikeouts in a season since Kevin Gausman in 2023 (237), one thing Stop has performed in 5 consecutive seasons, offering them with a component of swing and miss they only haven’t had from their beginning rotation. 

He does so with one of many nastiest sliders in baseball, a a lot totally different approach of lacking bats versus the splitters that Gausman and Trey Yesavage dwell off to get their strikeouts. To not point out his 97+ mph common fastball velocity, which blows by what any of the beginning choices Toronto has had lately had been throwing. 

In right this moment’s baseball, pitching has leaned even additional in direction of the strikeout and velocity, and that is what Stop has and it is what the Blue Jays lacked. 

Pair his ability set with the aforementioned Gausman, Yesavage, Shane Bieber and Jose Berrios, and the Blue Jays boast a beginning 5 that may go toe-to-toe with nearly anybody within the MLB.

The heartbreak of how the 2025 season ended won’t ever go away for the workforce and its followers, however persevering with to push all of their chips in in the course of the offseason to comply with is definitely a very good begin as they appear to maneuver ahead.