In his hit song “0 to 100 / The Catch Up”, Drake referred to himself as the rookie and the vet. That ideology won’t be one person today, as 25-year-old Twins rookie Connor Prielipp will face Blue Jays veteran Dylan Cease this Saturday afternoon.

Whoever wins this game gets the upper hand in this four-game set, with both teams winning a game apiece thus far.

Toronto will send one of its best arms to the mound in Cease, who will be making his seventh start of the season. He’s pitched to a 2.87 ERA, 1.83 FIP, and 14.1 K/9 over 31 1/3 innings, with the K/9 an MLB-best among pitchers with a minimum of 30 innings pitched.

Cease is coming off a start against the Red Sox that happened to be a tale of two halves, if you will. He needed only 35 pitches to throw three scoreless innings with a hit and four strikeouts, but he laboured through the fourth, fifth, and most of the sixth innings. He didn’t get any run support, and he wound up being on the hook for four earned runs, three walks, and five strikeouts over 5 2/3.

Hopefully, the beginning of that start is a building block for longer outings to come, with Cease having only completed six innings once this season. He gets to face a foe against which he has the fourth-most starts for his career, primarily coming from his days with the Chicago White Sox. Most of the hitters he is probably used to seeing have gone their separate ways, but Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach are still in the Twins lineup. The former is just 1-for-8 with a double against Cease, and the latter has three singles and a walk in 16 at-bats against him in his career.

Josh Bell, who signed with the Twins on a one-year deal this past winter, has the most experience against Cease, going 5-for-14 with a double and two walks. Buxton, Larnach, and Bell happen to be the first three batters in Minnesota’s lineup this afternoon.

Prielipp is making only his third career major league start. The lefty has allowed five hits, four earned runs, three walks, and eleven strikeouts over a combined nine innings against the Mets and Mariners. Aside from a one-game stint in 2023 in High-A Cedar Rapids, Prielipp has posted a double-digit K/9 in each level across his minor league career.

Between his first two major league starts, he’s thrown mostly sliders to the right-handed hitters he has been facing. His fastball sits in the mid-90s, and he also has a changeup that has been extremely effective so far (and serves as a nice pairing with the slider), with a 44.4% whiff rate. Just check out the last clip in the montage below.

Given that Prielipp is a southpaw, the Blue Jays have eight right-handed hitters in today’s lineup, Daulton Varsho being the lone lefty. Ernie Clement is back in the lineup after an off day covering Andrés Giménez at shortstop, and Davis Schneider is back in left field after Yohendrick Piñango started yesterday. Piñango has gotten off to a nice start at the major league level, so he may be an ideal pinch-hitting candidate at a critical point against a righty reliever.

The Blue Jays have a pair of hot hitters in the middle of their order, with Lenyn Sosa coming off a three-hit day and Kazuma Okamoto hitting six extra-base hits in his last 12 games.

Location: Target Field – Minneapolis, MN

First Pitch: 2:10 PM ET

Watch/Listen: Sportsnet One / Sportsnet 590 The Fan

Toronto Blue Jays – Dylan Cease: 1-1 record, 2.87 ERA, 31 1/3 IP, 49 SO, 17BB

Minnesota Twins – Connor Prielipp: 1-0 record, 4.00 ERA, 9 IP, 11 SO, 3 BB

Off The Roster is Toronto sports. Hosted by Cabbie Richards, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio, this is the go-to morning conversation for everything happening in the 6ix – Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and everything in between. From breakout performances and questionable trades to throwback jerseys, viral moments, and the stories fans are actually talking about—it’s smart, sharp, and never scripted. Live weekday mornings on the Nation Network YouTube channel and available wherever you stream podcasts, the show delivers real opinions, real chemistry, and real Toronto energy. Missed an episode? Catch up anytime. Off The Roster—The new sound of the 6ix.