Red Sox Rival Loses Ace To ‘Mild’ Injury originally appeared on NESN.
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The Toronto Blue Jays know the Boston Red Sox’s pain. That’s because like the Red Sox, the Blue Jays face the immediate future without their ace.
Toronto placed right-hander Dylan Cease on the 15-day injured list Monday with a left hamstring strain. Cease left Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates after giving up two runs and four hits while striking out eight in 4.2 innings.
“Mild is the key word, I think, so hopefully it’s not too long,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said, according to MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “He was encouraged with how he felt after the MRI showed just a mild-to-moderate strain.”
Cease signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Blue Jays in December. At the time, the Blue Jays imagined Cease being the missing link after losing the 2025 World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
Before the hamstring injury, Cease had been holding his own, going 3-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 starts. The 30-year-old came to Toronto with durability as his calling card. Cease has made at least 32 starts in each of the last five seasons.
“He wants to pitch. I think he’s being smart about it, too,” Schneider said, per MLB.com. “The risk-reward of losing him for a long time as opposed to two [starts] kind of outweighed that.”
Despite adding Cease to their rotation, the Blue Jays have struggled while defending their American League pennant. Toronto (25-29) is in third place in the American League East, 10.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.
Much like the Blue Jays, the Red Sox have watched injuries sabotage a season filled with expectations. Garrett Crochet, who was runner-up in voting for the 2025 American League Cy Young Award, landed on the injured list last month with left shoulder inflammation. He’s slated to throw live batting practice on Tuesday, and if all goes well, he could return to the Red Sox rotation in early June.
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