The New York Mets will be active looking to acquire talent this MLB offseason, and with star Chicago White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease seemingly on the trade block, he could be a perfect target for the team in Queens.
The Mets were projected to be a top-tier team in the majors last season, but that was far from the case. The injury of superstar closer Edwin Diaz in the WBC was the beginning of disaster as other injuries to individuals like Starling Marte, Mark Vientos, and Justin Verlander affected their performance early in their campaign. Most of their stars were subpar for most of the 162-game grind, which prompted the front office to sell guys, such as Verlander, Max Scherzer, Tommy Pham, and Mark Canha.
The Mets have added David Stearns as the new President of Baseball Operations for the organization, and he has been adamant in bolstering their starting rotation. One approach is through the trade market and a team that has been open to start a rebuild is the White Sox. They have Cease, the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up on their roster, which is the perfect replacement after they lost Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.
The offer that would entice the White Sox might be a bit too much for the Mets liking, but it would be the only realistic Dylan Cease trade offer.
Mets receive: Dylan Cease
White Sox receive: Ronny Mauricio and Drew Gilbert
The Mets would be sacrificing their farm system because Ronny Mauricio and Drew Gilbert are their No. 2 and No. 4 prospects, respectively. They are both top 100 prospects in baseball, so it would be difficult to let them both go as opposed to just dealing one of them.
By trading both Mauricio and Gilbert, the Mets are basically scrapping their initial plan of selling their stars like Verlander and Scherzer. Their main intention of trading those guys was rectifying their farm system and bolstering their minor league roster, so letting go of Mauricio and Gilbert will be a tough pill to swallow.
From the other perspective of the Mets, this might be the only chance t0 acquire an ace in the caliber of Cease. It's not every day that someone with his skillset and arsenal is available in the trade market, so New York may be intrigued with his repertoire. The problem with the previous Mets approach was they pursued aging pitchers, but that is not the case for Cease because he is only 27 years old and still has a couple of years left on his contract.
With the projected rotation of the Mets for 2024, the depth is very questionable after Kodai Senga as guys like Jose Quintana or Tylor Megill have not proven to be consistent at the highest level. With the possibility of letting two exceptional prospects go in a Dylan Cease trade, the Mets must somehow find a way to keep him for the foreseeable future even after he eclipses his prime, so the organization is able to maximize his services.
Cease's contract expires in 2026, so the Mets should hope to have him until at least 2029 or 2030, especially if Mauricio or Gilbert turn out to be superstars with the White Sox. Stearns has emphasized that fortifying their starting pitching is his top priority, but the asking price for someone like Cease is a bit too steep. Furthermore, a contract extension that Cease would demand will likely be too much because he knows he has extremely high demand in the market.
The Mets organization must exercise patience and build their rotation slowly rather than completing one splashy move.
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