Dylan Cease is one of the better pitchers in baseball, and the Chicago White Sox are in a rebuild of sorts. As a result, Cease has drawn no shortage of interest in trade talks. Chicago is seemingly willing to listen on Cease trade offers, but general manager Chris Getz said a deal isn't close yet, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

“If we feel like there's a there's a fit that improves our club, we will certainly strongly consider it,” Getz said. “Certainly that hasn't happened at this point.”

Getz also commented on Cease's future trade outlook. He was asked about Cease's potential trade market once more free-agent pitchers such as Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery sign.

“It’s tough to tell. Whether it comes to a Cease market or any other player’s market, we’re not operating in a vacuum. Some teams have more financial flexibility than others,” Getz said, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN. “All it takes is one team that wants to jump out and get a deal done. In the case of Dylan, I don’t think there’s a club out there that hasn’t expressed some level of interest in him. All their situations are different.”

Dylan Cease's trade value

Dylan Cease (Chicago White Sox) with question marks around him

At 28-years old, Cease is arguably the top pitching trade target available. It should be noted that his 2022 and 2023 seasons were drastically different.

In 2022, the White Sox star finished the year with a 2.20 ERA and 227 strikeouts. Cease followed that up with a 2023 campaign that saw him record a 4.58 ERA.

Sure, the strikeouts declined a bit in 2023, as Cease finished with 214 strikeouts. That isn't an eye-opening decline, however. Many people point to Cease's walks but he actually only walked one more hitter in 2023 than 2022, and in 2022 he led the league in walks with 78.

So what happened in 2023?

Cease's 2022 vs. 2023

Cease is a pitcher who struggles with control. In 2022, he was able to limit the damage despite allowing a lot of base runners because he contained overall hits. Batters slashed just .190/.278/.306/.584 versus Cease during the '22 campaign.

In 2023, while allowing a similar amount of base runners, Cease wasn't able to keep hitters quite as in check. They slashed .250/.332/.405/.737 against him.

One would imagine that these startling differences would balance out in 2024. Or, perhaps, Cease will return to his Cy Young caliber form (he finished second in AL Cy Young voting in 2022).

I've written this before and will probably write it again, but trading Cease comes with a lot of risk. It's fairly similar to signing free-agent Blake Snell. Both pitchers are able to record an impressive amount of strikeouts but do tend to lose the strike zone quite often.

Cease holds much trade value, but teams may be a bit hesitant before going all in on a deal.