The well-known and much speculated upon Major League Baseball trade deadline is approaching. There has been a plethora of articles written about the different trade options that the White Sox could put together to get additional talent on the team.
Most of these articles center on the team’s pitchers and trading away a pitcher or two to help gain some talent and position themselves for the future. Names like Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito are being thrown out as possible trade candidates.
One name that you don’t see too often in trade rumors is Dylan Cease. Why? Well, Cease is really the backbone of this pitching arsenal for the White Sox.
He’s their best pitcher (although he may not have looked like it at times this year). He is coming off a season where he came in second to Justin Verlander for the AL Cy Young Award but hasn’t looked like the runner-up he was in 2022.
Dylan Cease is a very big part of the Chicago White Sox organization.
He has struggled. But he has not struggled enough to be traded.
Cease is the building block that the team will set their pitching staff on, whomever it might contain, and build or adjust from there.
He’s the best of the bunch and the White Sox will not get rid of him. Even though it’s possible he might command a high price in the open market and might garner a high return, he will not be dangled as trade bait and will remain a Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox aren’t going to want to clear the cupboards of all of their top talent. Some figure that they will have a huge sell-off at the trade deadline but that’s not likely.
One or two crucial pieces may find their way to another team when it’s all said and done, those pieces being Lynn and Giolito but there is no way that Cease will be traded. If he is, for some reason, the White Sox's upper management should immediately be fired.
Cease is the epitome of a hard-working pitcher that doesn’t ever give up. He’s ideal to be a mentor to any young pitchers that the White Sox may choose to bring in to replace anyone that might get traded or may not be back next season with the Sox.
Cease is also a pillar on this team and one of the strengths that holds it up and keeps it together.
There are rumors that the Houston Astros may make a strong run at Cease as the trade deadline approaches and that may happen if the Astros are willing to give up some key pieces to get him.
But it’s so unlikely that the White Sox will trade Cease away to anyone, including the Astros. The White Sox are going to want to keep him as a key piece of the team going forward.
So, don’t worry White Sox fans, Dylan Cease is not going to be going anywhere at the trade deadline. He will remain a White Sox and will be a piece that they use to help rebuild their pitching staff (after a suspected purge of at least two members of their staff) and help drive the team into the future.