Dave Litman
Major league baseball has named its starting pitchers for the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday. And for the first time in 43 years, and only the second time in franchise history, a Toronto Blue Jays hurler has gotten the nod. Dylan Cease will take the ball for the American League.
To be clear, this is not a case of recency bias. Yes, Cease came within three outs of a no-hitter in his last start this past week. But he has been everything the Blue Jays bargained for (and paid handsomely for) when they signed him to a $210M deal in free agency in the offseason.
In 17 starts, Cease leads the American League in a number of categories:
- 148 strikeouts
- 13.5 K/9
- 2.18 FIP (fielding independent pitching)
- 0.5 HR/9
- 6.1 Hits/9
That last number has led to a minuscule .190 batting average for opponents against Cease this year, a ridiculously low .261 slugging pct., and a .545 OPS. Overall, he has a 2.56 ERA. By any measure, he is a top candidate in the AL for the Cy Young. It is an even-numbered year, after all. He finished 2nd in the balloting in 2022, and 4th in 2024.
As for that near no-no, the irony is that the only Blue Jays pitcher in history to ever throw a no-hitter was Dave Stieb, who threw one in 1990. The ironic part? Stieb is also the only Toronto hurler in history ever to be named the starter in the All-Star Game. That was 43 years ago, in 1983. Stieb was also infamously known for losing several other no-hit bids in 9th-inning heartbreaking fashion, just as Cease was this week.
Cristopher Sanchez wins NL All-Star starting job, to face Dylan Cease
Cease’s counterpart on the mound as the All-Star starter for the National League is the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Cristopher Sanchez.
Sanchez is having another bang-up year for the Phils, with an 11-4 record, a 2.62 ERA and a major league-leading 5.4 bWAR. He has a 144:25 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 127.1 innings and leads the NL with only 1.8 BB/9.
This will be Sanchez’s second trip to the Midsummer Classic, having also been named to the team in 2024. He was second in NL Cy Young voting in 2025.
It’ll be special for Sanchez and the fans in Philly to have their 29-year-old co-ace on the mound, with the game set to be played at Citizens Bank Park in the City of Brotherly Love.
