With a rather disappointing performance this year and a murky playoff race, the Toronto Blue Jays were heading into the trade deadline as one of the sellers. But their main objective at the deadline was always building for the future through trade acquisitions.

They couldn’t focus on just buying or selling, and their hybrid buy-and-sell approach so far has brought in José Soriano while trading away Kevin Gausman. This is the new era of their starting rotation – here’s what the Blue Jays’ rotation next season could look like.

Spencer Arrighetti has been a volatile pitcher with the Houston Astros. He may not have been the most dependable starter in 2024 and 2025, but he found some success in 2026 when he earned his first AL Pitcher of the Month recognition in May. However, that stretch didn’t last long, and the 26-year-old’s numbers have come down to earth since.

Arrighetti won’t be a top-end starter, but the Blue Jays don’t need him to be an elite pitcher in the rotation. Rather, the team needed a back-end starter who can provide more consistent outings – Arrighetti is the best candidate for that in 2027.

The Blue Jays’ coaching staff will have to work on how to help Arrighetti maximize his strikeout ability while reducing his walk rate. When things click for the right-hander, he can become a weapon in the Jays’ rotation who can command seven pitches.

If Kevin Gausman was the bona fide ace for nearly half a decade, Dylan Cease has now inherited this role as the new face of the Blue Jays’ starting rotation.

Cease is the right pitcher to play this part. His walk rate leaves something to be desired, but the 30-year-old ranks in the 99th percentile in pitching run value, 97th in whiff rate and 99th in strikeout value, according to Baseball Savant. This year, his WHIP and FIP are only 1.08 and 2.30, respectively, showing his ability to bounce back to his Cy Young-finalist form. He also recently threw a complete-game shutout against the Boston Red Sox, proving his durability and grit once again.

So long as Cease figures out how to reduce his walk rate and keep his pitch counts lower, he will become Gausman-esque or an even better ace for the next six years.

Cody Ponce was supposed to be the third starter for the 2026 Blue Jays. But with his UCL tear earlier in the season, he will rejoin the Blue Jays in the 2027 season instead.

Ponce hasn’t pitched in the majors for the past three years but spent time with the NPB and KBO. He had his best year with the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO in 2025 when he received the Choi Dong-Won award, which is the equivalent of the Cy Young. That version of Ponce threw 180.2 innings and recorded a 1.89 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 1.81 FIP.

If the 32-year-old comes close to those numbers in 2027, it would be a shot in the arm for the Blue Jays’ rotation that sorely lacked sharper starting pitching in 2026. Replicating those exact stats will be hard to achieve, but if Ponce can keep his ERA around the 3.00s, the Blue Jays would be gaining a solid second or third starter next season.

As Mitch Bannon, the Blue Jays’ beat writer for The Athletic, said, Toronto needed to get a young, controllable starting pitcher to boost the team’s rotation. The young starter they acquired at this deadline is José Soriano, who has been a revelation for the Angels this season.

Soriano has had his best season this year since making his debut with the Angels in 2023. He currently has a 3.29 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 3.79 FIP in 123 innings pitched, which has turned him into a coveted young starter many teams were targeting. His pitching run value ranks in the 92nd percentile, 89th in whiff rate and 90th in ground ball rate, demonstrating that he can further refine his skill set to become someone like Dylan Cease in the future.

The 27-year-old grades excellently in his non-fastball run value, as his breaking run value ranks 94th and offspeed 87th. His fastball run value drops to 62nd, so if the Blue Jays can develop his fastball into a more lethal pitch, he would become a much more versatile pitcher in the rotation.

Soriano won’t become a free agent until 2029 – this is the type of younger pitcher the Blue Jays need to help compete again soon.

Trey Yesavage’s debut with the Blue Jays was sensational and magical last year. He went from pitching in the deeper minor league system to pitching in the World Series in less than a year. His unusually high pitching angle and great stuff helped him succeed in the majors, even in the tense playoff stage.

That shine was going to wear off as teams began analyzing how to attack Yesavage. He’s been no exception to the sophomore slump, but he’s still been solid in the shaky Blue Jays’ rotation since his return from injury. In 91.2 innings pitched, the 23-year-old has a 3.73 ERA, 4.07 FIP and 1.16 WHIP. While these numbers are nowhere near his elite 2025 numbers, the team has time to help the right-hander reinvent himself and tighten up his pitching.

Yesavage’s chase and whiff rate also dropped since last season, but if the Blue Jays can help increase those rates again while sharpening his pitches, the rookie sensation can become a mainstay in their rotation they can depend on for another five years.

Since his injury later in the 2025 season, José Berríos has been dealing with injuries even in 2026. While the 32-year-old can opt out of his contract at the end of 2026, he will most likely opt in for the 2027 season, since he wasn’t able to pitch at all this season.

His opt-in would signal that the Blue Jays would have a fourth or fifth start in the rotation. If Berríos can return to his 2023 or 2024 form, that would help the Blue Jays add more durability and consistency. Those qualities made the right-hander who he is now. For the Blue Jays’ rotation that lacked good quality starts, Berríos’s rebound would be a game-changer and provide relief to a rotation that needs a more consistent schedule and predictability.

Depending on what transpires at the trade deadline or during the 2026 offseason, Berríos’s future with the Blue Jays hasn’t solidified yet. However, it shouldn’t be a surprise if he remains with the Blue Jays and becomes one more starter in the rotation for the 2027 season.

Jake Bloss and Josh Stephan are most likely to turn into the depth pieces who can be called up whenever the Blue Jays need a replacement next year.

Both pitchers have high ERAs, FIPs and WHIPs. Bloss threw 39.1 innings this year in the minors and has a 6.18 ERA, 6.02 FIP and 1.45 WHIP. Stephan threw 101 innings in the minors as a Texas Ranger and recorded a 5.44 ERA, 5.71 FIP and 1.43 WHIP. None of these numbers are appealing, which is why the Blue Jays will have to rely on them for mop-up duties.

The biggest task for the Blue Jays is helping the two pitchers hone their pitching craft so that they can become more dependable in the years to come. That is, if both pitchers are able to stay healthy.

Bowden Francis seemed like the answer to the Blue Jays’ rotation when he was pitching more frequently for the team in 2024. But when injuries sidelined the 30-year-old for the past couple of seasons, his role with the Blue Jays became more ambiguous.

Yet, if he is healthy enough to return to the rotation in 2027, he would be a welcome addition to the Blue Jays’ rotation that needs more reliable back-end starters. The good news for Francis is that he doesn’t have to emulate anyone to turn into another Cease or Soriano; he just needs to become an innings-eater who can absorb as many innings as possible every five days.

This would reduce the pressure on Francis to play a key role in the rotation and allow him more time and space to figure out his rebound. He has been a great starter with a good groundball rate, and if he can lean more into that for next season, it would help even out the Jays’ home run rate overall.

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