Blue Jays sit last in AL East at All-Star break despite Dylan Cease's breakout season

The Toronto Blue Jays haven't had the season many fans hoped for heading into the All-Star break, sitting last in the AL East with a record of 45-51, 12 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays and 2.5 games out of one of the American League's three Wild Card spots.

The club is 10 games behind where it sat through 96 games last season, following a historic World Series run. However, there have been bright spots: new addition Dylan Cease leads the American League in strikeouts with 145. In his last five starts, Cease has amassed three wins and 45 strikeouts, averaging nine per start. The 30-year-old is on pace for the best season of his career and is tracking toward a career-high 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings, currently tied for the MLB lead.

Cease was recently named the starting pitcher for the American League in Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game. He is just the third Blue Jays pitcher to earn the honour, joining only franchise legends Roy Halladay and Dave Stieb.

New addition Kazuma Okamoto has also been a foundation, leading the team with 22 home runs and ranking among the MLB's top 10 in the category. His 22 homers account for nearly 23 per cent of the Blue Jays' 98 home runs this season. Ernie Clement continues to have the best offensive season of his career.

For the Blue Jays to turn things around and match last year's 94-win season that earned them the AL East pennant, they'll need to go 49-17 the rest of the way. The production at the plate must change — Toronto ranks among the league's worst teams in extra-base hits and sits dead last in the American League in on-base percentage.