Dylan Cease is a free agent after this season, and the San Diego Padres are fully aware of that reality, as proven by their reportedly fielding trade offers for the 29-year-old right-hander. And if the Padres aren’t confident in their ability to re-sign Cease and/or their chances of contending for the National League pennant, there’s merit in making a midseason trade.
Cease’s year-plus stint with the Padres (2024-25) has been bizarre. At his best, Cease is a potent strikeout pitcher who has the stature of an ace. Other times, Cease primarily being a two-pitch pitcher – slider and four-seamer – can catch up to him. For instance, in 2024, Cease posted a 3.47 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 224 strikeouts — two seasons after posting a 2.20 ERA with the Chicago White Sox — whereas this year he boasts a 4.59 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.
Put it all together, though, and the right-hander is a top-of-the-rotation-caliber arm who’s durable, can pitch deep into games and is in the prime of his career. Cease can move the needle for a contender.
Here are the three best trade fits for Cease.
Dylan Cease has led his respective league in starts in three of the past four complete seasons. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
The Blue Jays are playing as well as anybody in the sport, but they could use another quality arm, and that’s precisely what Cease would provide.
Toronto has a combination of proven veteran starters in Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Max Scherzer, while left-hander Eric Lauer is having a career year (2.61 ERA in 16 appearances, 10 starts). At the same time, this is a rotation that combines for a mid-level 4.05 ERA, good for 19th in MLB, and has escaped a lot of trouble this season.
Cease would give the Blue Jays a strikeout pitcher who would be part of their playoff rotation. Toronto’s offense is humming, its bullpen is holding down the fort and its rotation is respectable. But the rotation is the area of this team that needs improvement if they’re going to hold off the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the AL East and go on a deep playoff run thereafter. Toronto could offer San Diego two out of three of pitching prospects Khal Stephen, Johnny King and Kendry Rojas for Cease.
All that said, the Blue Jays could view Cease as a superfluous addition to a veteran staff and acquiring him in the midst of a bumpy season as a move that has more risk to it than clarity, opting to refrain from a trade.Â
Dylan Cease spent the first five seasons of his career with the White Sox. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
Cease would immediately become New York’s most proven MLB starting pitcher.
New York went into spring training with several question marks in its starting rotation, most of which panned out in a positive way to this point. David Pederson has been spectacular; Clay Holmes has impressed in his first season as a starting pitcher; Kodai Senga has been exceptional, but the 32-year-old, fellow right-handers Griffin Canning, Tylor Megill and Frankie Montas and left-hander Sean Manaea have missed extensive time due to injury. Cease gives the Mets a healthy arm.
On the impact front, Cease’s arrival takes some pressure off Pederson, Holmes and, when healthy, Megill to keep performing at career-high clips. The Mets have found success of late in getting veteran pitchers back on track (e.g. Manaea and Luis Severino); Cease, who would add a strikeout arm to a rotation that’s 19th in MLB with 7.91 strikeouts per nine innings, could become their next painting to hang in the Louvre.
Yes, the Mets entered Friday tied for the best starting rotation ERA in baseball (2.89). At the same time, they’re trying to fend off the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL East and evade the wild-card round. Solidifying the rotation with the idea of their staff potentially regressing to the mean is a prudent play for the Mets and one that shouldn’t gut their farm system. The Mets could base a trade package for Cease around pitching prospects and former second-round picks Brandon Sproat and Jonathan Santucci and versatile 2023 draft pick A.J. Ewing.
What could stop the Mets from making a move for Cease, though, is their potential feeling that Senga being back on the mound gives New York its ace and could instead opt to make another trade to beef up the bullpen after already acquiring left-handed reliever Gregory Soto.Â
Dylan Cease posted an American League-best 6.4 WAR among pitchers in 2022. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
In 1980, Steve Winwood said that “while you see a chance, take it.” The Cubs should take that advice because they have a team that can win the World Series. A rotation enhancement like Cease makes that aspiration more of a reality.
The 2024 Cubs were a team whose backbone was starting pitching. This season, Chicago boasts a respectable 3.77 ERA, but that ranks just 13th in the sport. Outside of Matthew Boyd and a healthy Shota Imanaga, their rotation has been a guessing game. Furthermore, Justin Steele is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery and Javier Assad hasn’t pitched this season due to an oblique injury.
Cease gives Chicago right-handed firepower, adding a punchout artist to a rotation that’s just 23rd in MLB with 7.63 strikeouts per nine innings. Cease’s arrival would also prevent manager Craig Counsell from having to rely on young arms Cade Horton and Ben Brown to make a jump. Chicago has the best bullpen ERA in the sport (2.45) and a lineup that’s flat-out mashing. Its rotation is capable of better performance, but doing nothing to improve that aspect of their club would be a mistake given the continued willingness of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the largest obstacle in the Cubs’ way of winning the NL pennant, to push their payroll to extremes for the sake of any marginal roster improvement.
Worst-case scenario: the Cubs acquire Cease, they don’t win the World Series, and he leaves in free agency. In 2016, the Cubs traded an infield prospect named Gleyber Torres, among other players, to attain star closer Arolids Chapman. Chicago went on to win the World Series and lost Chapman in free agency. If the Cubs could go back in time knowing that Chapman wouldn’t re-sign and Torres would become an All-Star middle infielder, they’d make the trade again. These trade deadline moves are about winning the whole thing, not being able to say you almost beat the Dodgers.
Chicago could center a Cease trade offer around right-handers Jaxon Wiggins and the rising Ryan Gallagher and infield prospect Pedro Ramirez.
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