The Blue Jays made a huge statement on Wednesday night with their 7-year, $210 million pact with starting pitcher Dylan Cease.

The addition of the former Padre to a rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, and Shane Bieber gives Toronto one of the very best groups of starting pitchers in the major leagues. The contract given to Cease is the second biggest in franchise history, both by total dollars and AAV, and the biggest given to a pitcher. Rogers has certainly opened up its wallet in recent years, with the team inking a number of big contracts with free agents over the last few seasons. Of course, total dollar figures have only gone up over the years, which makes it more likely that the biggest deals in team history also tend to be some of the more recent.

Let’s take a look at some other big deals the club has signed over the years and how they have turned out.

It only makes sense to start with Guerrero, whose half-a-billion-dollar deal signed last offseason is more than double the total dollars of the next highest contract.

When looking at AAV, Guerrereo’s $35.7 million is closer to the $30 million that Cease signed for. Considering the deal officially starts this season (he played under his last year of arbitration in 2025), the Blue Jays are undoubtedly pleased by how the season went, with their homegrown slugger having a productive season and then dominating when the lights were brightest in the playoffs. The postseason was also a chance for him to showcase his quality defense at first base, which will be important as he gets older and the DH questions inevitably come up.

This deal is too long to have any clue how it will turn out, but having Guerrero as a franchise icon for years to come appears to be the right decision at this point.

Springer’s 2021 megadeal was the biggest contract the Blue Jays had handed out until Vladdy’s deal earlier this year.

After a terrific season in 2022 where he posted a 4.2 bWAR, his numbers declined over the next couple of years, as age appeared to start taking a toll on the former Astros outfielder. This deal may not have looked great at this time last year, but Springer’s 2025 season changes things dramatically.

A 4.8 bWAR season, along with an electric playoff performance that included some iconic moments, means that this deal should go down as a win for the Jays, regardless of how the last year ends up going.

Gausman enters the last year of his deal after quickly becoming the ace of the staff upon signing in 2022. He has been as durable and consistent as you could ask for, making at least 30 starts in each of the last four years with the club. He led the American League in FIP in 2022 (2.38), while also leading the league in strikeout rate in 2023 (11.5 K/9).

Gausman received Cy Young votes in each of his first two years in Toronto, and then suffered a bit of a down year in the lost season that 2024 was for the club. He bounced back in a big way in 2025, which included a dominant playoff run where he produced a 2.93 ERA across six appearances. This was a slam dunk signing for the Jays, and it will be very interesting to see if they look to extend him at some point before he becomes a free agent next year.

The Wells contract was one of the worst contracts in Blue Jays history, made worse by the way the team structured the deal. This deal was signed in some of the early days of the Rogers ownership.

After a sensational 2006 season in which he produced a 6.2 bWAR, the Blue Jays made their center fielder the highest-paid player in team history, and the sixth highest in baseball history. Injuries plagued Wells over the next few years, including season-ending shoulder surgery, a broken wrist, and a hamstring injury.

With Wells posting mediocre numbers over three straight years, this deal looked bad pretty quickly. The Jays also heavily backloaded the deal, with a whopping $86 million owed to Wells over the final four years of the contract. This proved to be a burden, but they were able to dish off Wells and his salary to the Angels in 2011. It was a disappointing end for a player who is currently 5th in Blue Jays franchise history in career bWAR (28.7).

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