After Dylan Cease, the Chicago White Sox are moving on. Russell Dorsey of Yahoo Sports revealed on Wednesday that the organization dealt Cease to the San Diego Padres.
At least one very immediate effect of becoming a Padre for Cease is that the team was supposed to depart for South Korea on Wednesday to play its two season-opening games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish were previously announced as the likely starting for those contests.
The White Sox, who sacked vice president Kenny Williams and former general manager Rick Hahn in August, are about to undergo another change. Late in August, Chris Getz—who spent two years as a player for the White Sox before retiring—was elevated to the position of front office manager to succeed Hahn.
This is the largest deal that Getz has made since taking control, as well as maybe the largest choice. In November, he turned down the Atlanta Braves’ option on shortstop Tim Anderson and later that month, in exchange for reliever Aaron Bummer, acquired five players.
However, handling Cease is a completely different kind of business.
Dylan Cease became famous with the White Sox
After the organization’s most recent reconstruction, Cease became one of its biggest success stories. As a rookie, Cease had a 5.79 ERA; nevertheless, he gradually improved and had a significant breakthrough in 2022. In 184 innings pitched, he struck out 227 batters with a 2.20 ERA, finishing second in the AL Cy Young voting to Justin Verlander.
Cease regressed in 2023, finishing with a 4.58 ERA in 177 innings pitched. The White Sox crumbled in the regular season once more, and he did not receive a single Cy Young vote.
SP – CWS – #84
Despite having exhibited explosive skills throughout his career, Cease has found it difficult to assemble his entire toolkit. He topped the league in walks even in 2022, when he was on the verge of winning the Cy Young award.
Still, he has a lot of potential, which is why others were interested in him this offseason. It’s probable that Cease may reach a Cy Young level again given the correct adjustments and circumstances. And he might even surpass his 2022 levels if he can make progress with his control.
The White Sox looked at his contract situation—Cease is under team control through 2025—and decided that this was the ideal time to make a deal, presumably. Cease is under contract with the Padres for two seasons, and if things go well, they may utilize that time to negotiate an extension. The White Sox were probably able to optimize their return on the deal because of the additional year of control.
The action for Chicago portends further South Side transformation. Getz hasn’t stated outright if he thinks the White Sox will be in the postseason in 2024, but he has used the word “retool” this offseason as opposed to “rebuild.”
To stay competitive in the NL West, the Padres
At least from the team’s recent past, a trade for Cease seems like a classic Padres move. But things have changed a little since then.
With an NL West that is as competitive as ever, San Diego has an uphill battle despite having more stars than it can count. The Los Angeles Dodgers showed off their strength this offseason by adding Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, and a host of other players. With more youthful talent on the coming, the Arizona Diamondbacks are a young squad that has just made it to the World Series. Even the San Francisco Giants created a stir when they signed Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler, and Jung Hoo Lee.
In the meantime, the Padres lost out on trades involving Juan Soto, witnessed closer Josh Hader sign a deal with the Houston Astros, and will probably lose out on Blake Snell, the current NL Cy Young winner. It was difficult to think the squad could be a genuine contender again this season given that they ended 18 games behind the Dodgers in the previous campaign. It may yet be.
With a predicted win total of 79.9, the Padres were ranked as the fourth-best team in the division as of Wednesday according to Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA. That puts the Giants (83.3) and D-Backs (85.4) a couple of games behind and the Dodgers (100.6) more than 20 games behind.
Putting aside his 2023 performances at the surface, Cease is a good pitcher. Even after three seasons, his average value has only been 3.9 bWAR. It’s unlikely that Cease will even come close to leading the Padres to the division championship, but perhaps they still have a few surprises left in them. Nevertheless, they ought to be strong contenders in the wild-card battle, and anything can happen after Opening Day.
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