Two 2023 also-rans, the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres, teamed up on a trade that sent Dylan Cease across league lines.
After a winter of rumors, White Sox ace Dylan Cease has finally been traded.
The San Diego Padres landed the star right-hander late Wednesday less than a week before the team opens its season with an early two-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Seoul, Korea.
Cease, 28, had been coveted by several clubs, including the New York Yankees after the unexpected loss of No. 1 starter Gerrit Cole earlier this week with elbow inflammation.
To get Cease, the Padres sent a package of prospects across league lines to Chicago. The group includes Samuel Zavala, Steven Wilson, Drew Thorpe, and Jairo Iriarte, according to Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com and Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. News of the deal was first broken by Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
Cease led the American League with 33 starts last season but couldn’t prevent his club from finishing fourth in the five-team Central Division with a 61-101 record, 26 games out of first place and just five games ahead of the rock-bottom Kansas City Royals.
For a team that won the division crown as recently as 2021, the drop was dizzying – and the main reason for a personnel turnover that featured the exodus of a half-dozen pitchers, Cease included.
