The Toronto Blue Jays are visiting the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, with first pitch set for 9:38 p.m. ET/6:38 p.m. PT. Dylan Cease will take the bump for the Blue Jays, facing off against Angels lefty Reid Detmers at Angel Stadium. Looking at the odds, lines and Cease’s strikeouts prop on DraftKings Sportsbook, here is a breakdown of how the blockbuster free agent addition could perform in his fifth outing of the season.
Dylan Cease Strikeouts Prop
DraftKings Sportsbook currently has Cease’s strikeouts thrown line set at 7.5 for Monday’s contest against the Angels.
While Cease doesn’t have a decision this season, he has been pretty effective. Through four starts, the righty owns a 1.74 ERA, 1.258 WHIP and 0.8 WAR with 13.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Cease racked up 12 strikeouts in his Blue Jays debut back on March 28, giving up three hits, two walks and one earned run in 5.1 innings of action. He has posted a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in all three starts since, though, falling off from his 6-to-1 breakout. Still, Cease has at least six strikeouts in all four of his appearances this season. He is fresh off a season-high game score and his only scoreless outing of the season, giving up just two hits and three walks in 6.0 innings at the Brewers on April 15.
Cease has struck out at least 214 batters in each of the last five seasons. He was AL Cy Young runner-up with the White Sox in 2022, then finished fourth in the NL Cy Young race with the Padres in 2024, helping him secure a $175 million contract from the Blue Jays this winter. Nobody has made more starts than Cease since he made his MLB debut in July 2019, while his 11.3 strikeouts per nine innings since the start of 2021 rank seventh behind only Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Garrett Crochet, Blake Snell, Jacob deGrom and Spencer Strider.
Based on FanGraphs‘ Steamer model, Cease is projected to go 10-8 with a 3.46 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 186 strikeouts across 27 starts and 154.0 innings in the remainder of 2026. His 3.8 projected fWAR ranks No. 10 among MLB starters, while his projected 10.57 strikeouts per nine innings rank No. 8.
Dylan Cease picks, predictions
Cease is 2-for-4 this season when it comes to clearing a 7.5-strikeout line, but 0-for-2 on the road. He went 11-for-31 in 2025, 13-for-33 in 2024, 10-for-33 in 2023 and 18-for-32 in 2022, bringing his over rate on Monday’s line to 40.6% over that span. Having such a high line doesn’t give Cease much of a cushion, though – in 14 of his 36 starts with over 7.5 strikeouts over the past three-plus seasons, he has finished with exactly eight punchouts.
The Angels’ lineup ranks No. 7 with a 110 OPS+, better than three of the four teams Cease has faced this season. The righty has faced MLB’s top offense in the Dodgers, however, lasting 5.0 innings and posting eight strikeouts. The Angels have struck out more than any other team in baseball in 2026, going down by way of the K a whopping 223 times through 23 contests. And yet, Los Angeles hasn’t allowed an opposing starter to break 7.5 strikeouts in any of their last five games.
Cease hasn’t thrown a pitch in the seventh inning this year. He only did so seven times all of last year. The Angels are averaging 6.3 strikeouts through six innings per game, only going over 7.5 twice in their last 11 games. For as good as Cease is at forcing strikeouts, I don’t feel great about him reaching eight on the road Monday, even with a seemingly favorable matchup.
