3 players the White Sox may trade at the 2023 MLB Winter Meetings

Dylan Cease is a name that big-time teams are targeting right now

There is a large market for starting pitching in Major League Baseball. That is never going to change. We see with teams like the White Sox how bad pitching can cause you to have one of the worst seasons in franchise history. They were 26/30 in team ERA at 4.87.

You are certainly not going to win a division if your rotation is that bad. We also saw the opposite end of the spectrum in the playoffs. The pitching on the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers led them to the World Series.

Of course, it helps pitchers to have an offense that supplements their work well. Dylan Cease certainly doesn't have that luxury with the White Sox. As a result, a new team might allow him to get back to the dominance that he showed in 2022.

In that crazy 2022 season, he came in second place for the AL Cy Young thanks to his 2.20 ERA, 14-8 record, and 227 strikeouts in 184.0 innings pitched. If it weren't for Justin Verlander having one of the greatest seasons ever, he would have won.

2023 was always going to see some regression but it turned into a major letdown. He went 7-9 with a 4.58 ERA. He did have 214 strikeouts in 117.0 innings pitched so he was still missing bats. He wasn't horrible but it wasn't close to the year before.

He had a very strong finish (5 earned runs over his final four starts) so teams might look at that as a positive when thinking about trading for a cost-controlled pitcher with high upside. It looked like he was going to be traded last deadline but it never happened.

Now, you can expect it to possibly happen at the Winter Meetings instead. It would honestly be shocking to see him in a White Sox uniform on Opening Day.