TORONTO — After a short and unsuccessful stint in the major leagues, Cody Ponce was pitching in Asia and still trying to find a mental approach that worked for him on the mound.
So he started emulating his brother-in-law, NFL star George Kittle. That led to a huge turnaround for Ponce and a three-year, $30 million contract with the AL champion Toronto Blue Jays this offseason.
“He helped me bring out my inner child again,” Ponce said on a video call with reporters. “And that was something that I felt like I was lacking for the two years prior while I was in Japan.”
A journeyman career changed dramatically in 2025 as Ponce went 17-1 over 29 starts with the Hanwha Eagles in South Korea. He had 252 strikeouts and a 1.89 ERA, helping him win the MVP award in the KBO.
Ponce gave credit to his wife, family, teammates — and Kittle, the spirited San Francisco 49ers tight end. Ponce is married to Kittle’s older sister, Emma, and he noticed how her not-so-little brother keeps things playful on the gridiron at times despite the sport’s obvious physicality and intensity.
“I saw the way he was playing the game of football and was not in awe, but (more) in this view of, wow, you can play such an angry game and be having fun at the same time. But yet still have this type of tenacity, this type of drive, this type of competitiveness, and be doing it all at the same time.
“I was like, that is something that I want to try to figure out.”
Ponce said he’s adjusted his approach so he feels more like a Little Leaguer again. He has made it a point to watch “Star Wars” — sometimes the movies, sometimes the TV series — before every start.
The 6-foot-6, 255-pound right-hander, who signed with the Blue Jays last week, is also focused on his body, putting in three to four hours a day of recovery work, activation, alignment and training.
On the mound, he credited former teammate — and former Blue Jays pitcher — Hyun Jin Ryu with helping him expand his arsenal by not relying on one type of off-speed pitch.
“Two types of cutters, two types of curveballs, two types of changeups,” said Ponce, who also throws a splitter and a mid-90s (mph) fastball. “Creating different pitches, and just the pitchability.”
Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease, who recently signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Blue Jays, will anchor a Toronto rotation that appears to be one of the deepest in baseball.
Ponce joins a mix of starters that also includes Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos. Bowden Francis, Eric Lauer and others could also factor in.
“I want to win baseball games,” Ponce said. “I want to win a World Series. So anything that I can do to be the best help that I can to this team, that’s what I’m going to do.”
The 31-year-old native of Pomona, California, said he got a chance to watch some of the Blue Jays’ playoff run last October. Toronto made it to the World Series before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
“The competitive nature of the team, the atmosphere that you can see on the bench during games — everybody was very lighthearted, but everybody was still very dedicated to wanting to win a ballgame each and every single night,” he said.
Ponce was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round of the 2015 amateur draft. He made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2020 and went 1-7 with a 5.86 ERA over parts of two seasons with the Pirates.
Ponce split time in Japan between the Nippon Ham Fighters and Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2022-24. He was 15-24 with a 4.54 ERA over three seasons.
He also spent several months in Japan’s minor leagues before his breakout season in South Korea.
“I just wanted to go out there and perform the best I could and try to (create) a possibility of coming back with at least one offer,” he said. “And then this kind of all happened.”
