The San Diego Padres are trading for Dylan Cease from the Chicago White Sox in a massive blockbuster deal.
The deal was first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN, noting that both sides are still finalizing the deal. Moments later, it was confirmed that Cease is heading to San Diego, with the Padres sending back multiple prospects, including the no. 5 on the MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect list in Drew Thorpe. Samuel Zavala and Jairo Iriarte are also part of the deal, as well as reliever Steven Wilson, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB Network.
Cease has been the talk of the MLB world over the past few weeks leading up to opening day because of his situation with the White Sox. With Chicago making changes throughout the roster, he has been labeled as the team's best trade candidate.
The trade buzz surrounding Cease has only intensified Wednesday amid reports of multiple teams inquiring about his services. The Padres were one of the teams “involved in talks” with the White Sox for the right-handed pitcher, and clearly, they have made huge strides in making a deal happen.
Aside from the Padres, the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles have been mentioned recently as potential suitors for Cease. Unfortunately for those teams, San Diego appears to have won the sweepstakes.
Dylan Cease focused on improving
With the deal, the Padres get a highly motivated Dylan Cease, who has shared recently that he is only focused on working on his game amid all the trade buzz. With his situation settled and now that he's heading to San Diego where he can just play and ball out, there should no longer be any distractions for him.
“It's happened so many times in the past couple of months, it really just feels like noise. I definitely see what is being said and people send me stuff. But I feel like if was really overly focused on that, it would be hard to perform,” Cease said on the recent trade rumors.
Cease is coming off a relatively down year–at least to his standards–with a 4.58 ERA. But it is worth noting that he still struck out 214 batters, his third straight season to have at least 200+ strikeouts. He's also not far removed from one of his best campaigns in 2022 when he had a 2.20 ERA and a 14-8 record, along with a career-best 227 strikeouts.
Sure enough, Cease's addition is a huge boost to a Padres team that has lackluster expectations in 2024. San Diego was focused on cutting costs this offseason–even parting ways with Juan Soto–so Cease is definitely a nice surprise for the team and its fanbase.
With Cease joining Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and new manager in Mike Shildt, things could be exciting in San Diego.
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