With the 2026 All-Star game slated for Tuesday night, the White Sox will see representation they haven’t seen since the 2021 season. After a pair of late injury replacements, Munetaka Murakami and Tristan Peters have joined Miguel Vargas on the American League roster. It’s the first time since 2022 that the White Sox have had more than one All-Star, and the first since 2021 that they have more than two. Though the White Sox are well-represented, it’s always interesting to see former White Sox players representing other teams, and former White Sox ace Dylan Cease will be in the spotlight in a big way.
Cease, who is in the first year of his seven-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, has been named the starting pitcher for the American League All-Star team. The 30-year-old holds a 2.56 ERA in 17 outings this season, and he leads all American League pitchers in fWAR with 3.7. With Blue Jays manager John Schneider also managing the AL All-Star team and Yankees ace Cam Schlittler not pitching due to rest, it seemed like a no-brainer decision for Cease to get the start.
Dylan Cease will start the All-Star Game for the American League
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 12, 2026
Cease has a 2.56 ERA and an AL-leading 148 strikeouts in 17 starts. It's his first time ever being named an All-Star pic.twitter.com/mWOFI7wvFO
White Sox fans remember how dominant Dylan Cease can be
White Sox fans are, of course, very familiar with Dylan Cease, who spent his first five big league seasons with the South-siders before being dealt to San Diego in 2024. His best season came in 2022, where he finished with a 2.20 ERA and 227 strikeouts, losing to only Justin Verlander in the American League Cy Young voting (though he was not an All-Star that season). Even at his best Cease is known to struggle with walks, and the White Sox made the decision to move on from his with two years left on his contract at the start of 2024, landing RHPs Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte and OF Samuel Zavala in the deal.
So far, the results of the trade haven’t been great for the White Sox. Cease has a solid 2024 season with San Diego. Though he struggled in 2025, he’s looked like his old form so far in 2026. Drew Thorpe is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery and both Iriarte and Zavala have run into major roadblocks in their development. There’s still time for any of the three prospects the White Sox acquired to turn things around, but it’s fair to wonder where the White Sox could be if they’d simply paid Dylan Cease instead.
The White Sox are still looking for someone to become a frontline starter, whether it’s an outside addition or through internal development, and Dylan Cease has been that and more for the Blue Jays this season. It would’ve taken a contract the White Sox have never given out to keep him around, and it frankly wasn’t very realistic given their position, but it’s fun to think about that alternate reality.
As Dylan Cease takes the mound for the American League All-Star team on Tuesday evening, White Sox fans will dream of a day where the guy on the hill is wearing their uniform, and not a blast from the past.
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