White Sox News: A new team is in on trading for Dylan Cease

The Chicago White Sox are looking to trade Dylan Cease and have been since the middle of last season. Now, the time has come to either do it or keep him at the beginning of the season.

If the season begins with him on the roster, you can assume that he will be the Opening Day starter. You can also assume that he will be kept until the trade deadline arrives.

Right now, however, the possibility that he is moved still exists. There is a new team involved in the sweepstakes as of this past weekend. Despite reports of the White Sox not getting a deal done soon because they won't lower the price, this new team is rumored to be involved.

That team is the Seattle Mariners. USA Today's Bob Nightengale made the report public and now the speculation is starting to happen.

The White Sox should consider moving Dylan Cease to the Mariners

He mentioned that the White Sox are interested in a package revolving around Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo, who are also good young starters.

If the Mariners got this deal done, they'd have a rotation of Cease along with Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby. That would be amongst the best in the league.

It sounds, according to Nightengale, like this is the White Sox's last chance to get a deal done before Spring Training. That might add to the urgency or the White Sox could wait until a desperate contender comes calling to them at the deadline.

The Mariners have to see themselves as contenders at this point as well. The World Series champion Texas Rangers are in their division along with the ALCS runner-up Houston Astros.

Seattle just fell short of the playoffs in 2023 after ending a long drought in 2022. It was a disappointing season for them as the Rangers did what the Mariners were supposed to do.

If they added Cease to the rotation to replace the struggling Robbie Ray, who they traded to the San Francisco Giants, they might have a bounce-back year in 2024.

Speaking of bounce-back years, Cease needs one of those. He wasn't awful in 2023 but he had a 4.58 ERA which is significantly worse than his 2022 ERA of 2.20. He was the Cy Young second-place finalist for his work in 2022. If the Mariners could get that version of him, they'd be thrilled.

The White Sox are rebuilding, so making this deal would be good for them, too. Cease isn't going to re-sign with them and he may not even pitch well in that kind of losing environment. Getting rid of him while he still has value and a high ceiling is the way to go. This is a perfect match with Seattle.