The Blue Jays had been talking for months about making a “significant” upgrade to the starting rotation. They made it happen late Sunday night by signing Cy Young finalist Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Ryu became the biggest addition of Ross Atkins’ tenure as general manager by agreeing to a four-year contract worth $80 million (all dollars U.S.). The deal was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan and has since been confirmed by the Star. It will not become official until Ryu passes a physical.

The 32-year-old Ryu is coming off a season in which he went 14-5 with a National-League best 2.32 ERA across 29 starts. He struck out 163 and walked just 24 over 182 2/3 innings while being named to the all-star team for the first time in his six-year career. The Korean finished second to Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom in voting for the Cy Young award.

Ryu immediately becomes Toronto’s top starter and joins a rotation that also features the recently signed Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson, Matt Shoemaker and then a collection of younger hurlers contending for the final spot — including Trent Thornton, Ryan Borucki and Shun Yamaguchi. The rotation still isn’t a strength, but it’s a lot deeper and more experienced than it was a few short weeks ago.

The Jays spent most of their off-season looking for starting pitching. They made previous attempts to sign Jake Odorizzi, Zack Wheeler and Kyle Gibson among others and didn’t come away with a successful bid. Ryu arguably was the last impact starter remaining on the market, and if he got away the Jays would have been in danger of coming away empty-handed.

The 32-year-old Korean is joining the Blue Jays on a four-year deal worth $80M.

There is risk here. A lot of it, actually. Prior to 2019, Ryu had not tossed more than 127 innings since 2014 and his medical history would give any doctor pause. There was surgery on his left shoulder in 2015, left elbow tendinitis in 2016, foot and hip issues the following year. In 2018, it was a strained groin. This year was the healthiest he has been in a long time and he still required two stints on the disabled list.

But here’s the thing. It’s a risk the Blue Jays can afford. They have a cheap young core of position players who won’t be eligible for large raises for approximately three more years. There is plenty of flexibility to spend significantly over the next couple of seasons without negatively impacting the ability to pay and add to the core down the road. Even with Ryu’s projected $20 million per season, Toronto’s projected payroll for 2020 remains a shade under $100 million. There is approximately $53.8 million on the books in guaranteed deals for 2021, and only $35.2 million the year after that.

Ryu will help in the short term but what the Jays are banking on is that he will be able to contribute in 2021-22 when Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and others really start to hit their stride. If Toronto didn’t add a long-term piece to the rotation now, it would have left even more work to do next year. It’s almost impossible to get everything done in one off-season and the Jays are well served to add a big piece now, see where it takes them and then reassess what holes need to be plugged.

The deal comes just a week after there were indications inside the Jays organization that the club didn’t expect to sign Ryu. The Angels, Twins and Dodgers were long rumoured as the presumed favourites and Toronto didn’t seem to like its chances about coming out on top. The possibility of a signing was downplayed and yet during the ensuing days something changed. Exactly what remains unclear, but whether another team dropped out or Toronto upped its offer even more, the only thing that matters is that the organization got its guy.

Atkins spent the last couple of years trying to raise the talent floor of his team. This latest move is all about raising the ceiling and that must be refreshing for the fan base to hear. The rebuild is still ongoing and it probably won’t end in 2020 either, but buying assets sounds a whole lot more appealing than trading them away.

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Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca