Blue Jays sign Kevin Gausman

While the Jays may be Semien-less going forward, they have added another starting pitcher to their rotation:

Kevin Gausman, 30, is one of the best free agent pitchers available this offseason, so this is a huge signing for the Jays. Their rotation for 2022 will now at the very least be, to say nothing of Nate Pearson:

• Berríos
• Ryu
• Manoah
• Gausman
• Stripling

This seems good:

Gausman, formerly of division rival the Orioles, had a career year with the Giants in 2021. He put up 5.2 bWAR, was an All Star, finished 6th in Cy Young voting and 21st in MVP votes. He had a sparkling 2.81 ERA over 192.0 innings, and made 33 starts. He struck out over 10 batters per nine innings, and kept the ball in the (to be fair, giant) park - giving up only 1 home run per nine innings. Some regression is likely as Gausman moves into a more hitter friendly park in the Rogers Center, but there’s plenty of reasons to happy with this addition.

Gausman mainly uses a fastball and a splitter, and will occasionally throw in a slider or a changeup.

It also sounds like Gausman is a generally great human being, something the front office has been placing a lot of importance on:

This (likely) takes the Jays out of the running to re-sign Ray. But, this is a very exciting addition. What a way to start a week.

Now to start brainstorming nicknames for our newest Jay.