TORONTO — For the Toronto Blue Jays, the pending Dylan Cease deal is both extremely on-brand and a meaningful departure from the recent past.

It’s on-brand because the Blue Jays covet durable starting pitchers, and have consistently committed multi-year deals to top free agent pitchers from Hyun Jin Ryu and Yusei Kikuchi to Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. And while the occasional deal has backfired, the Blue Jays have generally shopped well here, finding some vitally important arms for fair prices.

Another reason the seven-year, $210 million deal is on-brand: it was predictable. At the GM Meetings in Las Vegas, sources close to the team said the top priority was adding a starting pitcher, given the upcoming departures of Bassitt and Max Scherzer. A couple of weeks later, Cease is set to

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