The Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a three-year, $30 million contract with free-agent right-hander Cody Ponce, sources confirmed. Ponce, 31, returns to MLB after a dominant 2025 season in the Korea Baseball Organization where he won MVP honors. This signing adds depth to Toronto's already strong rotation following their acquisition of Dylan Cease.
The Toronto Blue Jays continued their aggressive offseason approach by reaching an agreement with Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30 million deal, according to multiple sources including MLB.com and The Athletic. The pact, the richest ever for a pitcher returning from Korea, surpasses Erick Fedde's two-year, $15 million contract with the Chicago White Sox before the 2024 season. Ponce, a 2015 second-round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers, last pitched in MLB with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021, where he posted a 3.18 ERA in 2020 over five games and a 7.04 ERA in 2021 over 15 games.
Ponce's resurgence came in 2025 with the Hanwha Eagles in the KBO, where he went 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA over 180 2/3 innings in 29 starts. He recorded 252 strikeouts, setting a single-season KBO record, and fanned 18 batters in a game on May 17 or 18 against the SSG Landers. This performance earned him the KBO MVP award with 96 of 125 media votes and the Choi Dong-won Award, the league's Cy Young equivalent. His velocity increased to the mid-90s, reaching 97-98 mph, and he added a splitter, a pitch favored by Blue Jays starters like Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease.
The signing creates a rotation surplus for the defending American League champions, who reached the World Series in 2025. Projected starters include Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Jose Berríos, and now Ponce. Depth options feature Eric Lauer, who had a 3.18 ERA in 104 innings last season, and Bowden Francis. With Berríos facing an opt-out after 2026, and Gausman and Bieber becoming free agents then, Ponce provides long-term stability alongside Cease and Yesavage.
Toronto, which also signed Cease to a seven-year, $210 million deal—the largest free-agent contract in franchise history—now shifts focus to bolstering the bullpen and addressing shortstop, where free agent Bo Bichette remains a key figure. The moves position the Blue Jays as offseason frontrunners ahead of the Winter Meetings in Orlando.
