Dylan Cease Dealing With Shoulder Inflammation

Dylan Cease will not pitch for the Blue Jays during this week’s series at Camden Yards. The likely AL Cy Young finalist tells reporters (including Keegan Matheson of MLB.com and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet) that he’s been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation coming out of Friday’s start in Texas.

Cease had his worst outing of the season last week. He walked six batters and surrendered three hits among 17 batters faced. Cease allowed four runs (one earned) while tossing a season-low 2 2/3 innings. His fastball averaged 93.6 mph, more than three ticks below his season average. Cease not coincidentally only recorded three strikeouts, his lowest tally this year.

The first-time All-Star stressed that there’s nothing off structurally that’d impact his availability for the 2027 season. It does seem likely to end his ’26 campaign a week early, though the Jays are holding off on placing him on the injured list. Toronto takes a 77-79 record into tonight’s series opener in Baltimore. They’re off on Thursday and will host the Reds to end the regular season.

Toronto is still alive but probably needs a 6-0 finish to have any chance at snagging the American League’s final playoff spot. They’re three games back of the White Sox, who also have the tiebreaker by virtue of going 5-1 against the Jays this season. The Jays do have the tiebreaker against the AL Central-leading Guardians, whose 81-75 record has them a game ahead of Chicago.

In either case, they essentially need to erase a 3.5-game deficit this week. Consecutive sweeps would put some pressure on the AL Central clubs, who’d need a 3-3 finish to stay ahead of Toronto in that event. The White Sox have an easy final week with series against the Royals and Rockies. Cleveland will finish with road sets in Boston and Kansas City.

Trey Yesavage returned from the injured list tonight and tossed two innings in an abbreviated appearance. Max Scherzer will go tomorrow opposite Chris Bassitt. Neither the Jays nor O’s have announced a starter for Wednesday, which would’ve been Cease’s scheduled outing. Toronto’s pitching plans for the final weekend are to be determined; Cincinnati has already listed Nick Lodolo, Rhett Lowder and Brandon Williamson to close the year.

Cease is going to finish among the top five in Cy Young balloting for the third time in his career. He has a decent chance at his second runner-up, though Cam Schlittler’s sub-2.00 ERA season might make him the unanimous winner. Cease has worked to a sterling 2.40 earned run average in his own right, tossing 169 innings across 29 starts. Only Jacob Misiorowski and Gavin Williams have recorded more strikeouts than Cease’s career-high 239 — the fourth highest single-season total in franchise history. It’s as good a performance as the Toronto front office could’ve wanted to kick off his seven-year, $210MM free agent deal.