The Chicago White Sox traded Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. It was a conversation since the trade deadline week of 2023 but nothing ever came of it until this trade.
When the news of New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s injury started to circulate, Cease’s name started to come up as a potential replacement. However, the Yankees weren’t able to get a deal done before the White Sox sent him west.
The Padres will likely see Cease as the replacement of reigning Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell who is still a free agent that could end up anywhere. That team isn’t perfect but they have a much better chance of being good than the White Sox.
The Sox did a great job developing Cease after making the big trade with the Chicago Cubs. He turned into an ace-caliber pitcher who will once again thrive when he is on a better team in San Diego.
Grading the Chicago White Sox trade of Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres
There were a lot of good moments with Cease that White Sox fans won’t soon forget. Sadly, the rebuild was a major failure but it is time to move on.
In exchange for Cease, quite a few players are coming back to the White Sox. The most notable is RHP Drew Thorpe. He was San Diego’s 4th overall prospect and is 64th in the MLB top 100.
The next guy is RHP Jairo Iriarte who was 7th in San Diego’s system and 109th overall in MLB. Their 12th overall prospect, OF Samuel Zavala, is also coming in the deal.
RHP Steven Wilson graduated from being a prospect a little late but he is coming to the White Sox in the deal as well. He is someone that could play in the big leagues this season if he earns a spot. He isn’t a young prospect anymore so we’ll see what happens with him.
To grade this trade from a White Sox point of view right after it happened is very hard but it has to be done. The Sox got back one of their top-five prospects that is MLB's top 100 in addition to one of their top-seven prospects so that is good.
The other guys they are getting have upside but are less likely to be impact players in the future. As for the Padres, they get the high-end starter and best player in the trade.
Grade: B-
The White Sox didn’t do amazing here but they didn’t do bad either. They would have gotten more had they moved him ahead of the trade deadline last year but couldn’t get it done. Waiting until this year’s deadline was too risky because of injury risk.
The prospects that they traded for might be good but it will take some time to see it. We can only hope that it turns out well in their favor. A B- is fair for all of these pros and cons.