You cannot tell the story of the Toronto Blue Jays over the last five years without mentioning their quintessential workhorse: Kevin Gausman.

In the final year of his original five-year contract signed with the Blue Jays, Gausman will finish the deal as a member of the Chicago Cubs.

The writing has been on the wall the last week or so, with the Blue Jays tumbling further down in the Wild Card chase, and the front office looking to capitalize on some of their rental players. Gausman was among the most coveted of that group, so it was no surprise he landed elsewhere.

Ever since he signed with the Blue Jays in November 2021, Kevin Gausman has been central to some of the most important innings of this era of Blue Jays baseball. Combined with the signing of George Springer in January 2021, it ushered in an exciting wave of contention as the team became a destination for MLB’s top free agents.

Those two were instrumental in the team’s success, with three playoff berths over the last six years and one incredible run to Game 7 of the World Series in 2025. Right there through the thick of it all was Gausman, a stalwart for the team’s starting rotation since he debuted with the Blue Jays in 2022.

Through 4 1/2 seasons with the Blue Jays, Gausman made 148 starts and logged 861 innings, never injured, and always suited up every five games. He was as dependable as any starter any Major League team could ask for.

He not only ate up innings; he did so at an elite level. Even in his age-35 season this year, Gausman performed like a frontline starter and gave everything he had to will his team towards a playoff spot.

While the best statistical season of his career came in 2021 with the San Francisco Giants, Gausman’s best season in a Blue Jays uniform was last year, when he posted 4.0 bWAR during the regular season and chipped in an extra six games and 30.2 innings in the postseason. In total, Gausman contributed 223.2 innings in 2025 for Toronto.

Gausman never reached the Dave Stieb or Roy Halladay echelon of all-time Blue Jays greats, but Gausman’s name should be mentioned when debating the top ten or even top five starting pitchers in franchise history. Because he didn’t have the body of work of a Stieb, Doc, Jim Clancy, or Jimmy Key, Gausman doesn’t have quite as impressive basic counting stats.

But in the short time the Colorado native was with the Blue Jays, he made the most of it. Gausman leads all Blue Jays starters in K/9, FIP, and WHIP, and he’s either top five or top 10 in many other hallmark categories of elite starting pitchers (with a minimum of 100 games started with the Blue Jays).

Dylan Cease may be the only starting pitcher to eclipse Gausman’s strikeout numbers, but if ever there was a pitcher who rarely issued free passes while racking up strikeouts, it was Gausman. His start days were appointment viewing, whether it was a rainy game in Cleveland in April, the dog days of summer in Toronto, or Game 1 of a playoff series.

Gausman was constantly given the ball in the most important moments of the franchise’s history. While his best games in a Blue Jays uniform were front and centre, I’d like to suggest two of Gausman’s underrated appearances as a parting shot to one of the best pitchers ever to do it for the Blue Jays.

The first would be his relief appearance in Game 7 of the ALCS, which is often forgotten due to how wild the finish of that game was, but Blue Jays manager John Schneider went to Gausman in relief with the team trailing 3-1, in order to keep things close to give the offense enough time to work their magic.

Gausman walked the tightrope around three walks in the inning (one intentional to Cal Raleigh), but his scoreless seventh kept the Blue Jays within striking distance with three more kicks at the can in the bottom of the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings if necessary (it wasn’t).

The other unheralded Gausman start was Game 2 of the World Series. He put forth his best start of the postseason, limiting the Los Angeles Dodgers to four hits and three runs over 6.2 innings, giving his team a chance to spark some offence. The lineup faced Yoshinobu Yamamoto that night, but Gausman nearly matched Yamamoto pitch for pitch in that game.

Every team gambles when they sign a free agent to a sizable contract — with Anthony Santander being the latest example of a deal gone awry early on — but rarely does a player live up to their contract, and then some. As Schneider said himself, Gausman will go down as one of the best free-agent deals in franchise history.

Unfortunately, Gausman doesn’t get to finish out his contract with one last kick at the can with the Blue Jays. Still, he’ll be revered as a champion for the city of Toronto and the country of Canada, a consummate professional, a fierce competitor, and a man with one of the finest coiffures underneath a Blue Jays cap.