The Chicago White Sox are not getting much out of the Dylan Cease trade. To be fair, San Diego is not getting what they paid for from Dylan Cease this season, either.
The Sox hung four runs on Cease last Friday as his ERA climbed to 4.64 in his return to Rate Field. Cease has looked a lot like the inconsistent pitcher we saw in Chicago during the 2023 season. That was his final season on the South Side, where he posted a 4.58 ERA with a 3.72 FIP.
A bad defense behind Cease and a 10.1 walk percentage can be credited for his ERA ballooning after a career low 2.20 ERA in 2022 that put him in the Cy Young conversation. His 2025 season seems to be following the same trend, with a 3.64 FIP this season and a 9.9 walk percentage.
Cease was good for the Padres in 2024 and helped them get to the playoffs with a 3.47 ERA, 224 strikeouts, and a 1.07 WHIP. He also has a 3.1 fWAR this year, showing he has some value as the Padres head to the playoffs once again.
The White Sox have hardly gotten anything out of trading Cease to San Diego.
White Sox return for Dylan Cease has been weak
Reliever Steven Wilson had a bad year in 2024 and was designated for assignment in the offseason. I appreciate Wilson bouncing back this season with a good 2025, but his terrible 2024 is one of a hundred reasons why the Sox lost a record 121 games.
Starting pitcher Drew Thorpe was the centerpiece of the trade and the highest-rated prospect that came to Chicago. However, the White Sox saw just nine MLB starts from Thorpe before elbow surgery to shave down a bone spur ended his 2024 season prematurely.
Thorpe then had a setback during the winter and needed Tommy John surgery during Spring Training.
Jairo Iriarte was the other hot prospect the White Sox got in the Cease trade. He went from showing promise in 2024 with a 3.71 ERA at Double-A Birmingham to potentially being a bust with a terrible 2025 season at Triple-A Charlotte.
If there's one silver lining from the trade, it's outfielder Samuel Zavala, who was the final prospect Chicago acquired in the deal.
Zavala was on the path to being a bust with a terrible 2024 season at High-A Winston-Salem. Zavala made a horrible first impression, with a .187 average and a .641 OPS last season. That took him from a potential Top 100 prospect in baseball to tumbling out of the White Sox top 30 list by the end of the season.
Thankfully, Zavala has had a resurgent 2025 season and is beginning to show some promise again.
Samuel Zavala bouncing back in 2025
The 2024 season made it easy to forget about Zavala. I give him a ton of credit for breaking free of the downward trjsectory he was on. Zavala posted a respectable .254 average, a .360 on-base percentage, and 122 wRC+ this season.
That bounce-back allowed him to climb back into the team's Top 30. He is now considered the No. 28 prospect in the White Sox organization by MLB Pipeline.
Per MLB Pipeline's scouting report, Zavala's turnaround happened because he stopped being so passive at the plate and got stronger.
"Zavala ranked fifth in the Minors with 177 walks in 2023-24, but he was more passive than patient and pitchers took advantage. He's turning his left-handed stroke loose more often this year, though he swings and misses too much in the strike zone," writes MLB.com. "He has gotten stronger and is doing a better job of turning on and lifting pitches while producing more encouraging exit velocities, hitting at 15-20 homer power." (via MLB Pipeline)
His comeback matters more than just giving Chicago a chance to get a productive player out of the Dyaln Cease deal. Zavala's re-emergence also gives the White Sox a promising centerfield prospect, something the organization otherwise lacks.
The team's top prospect, Branden Montgomery, is a corner fielder. George Wolkow has a ton of promise, but he too is a corner outfielder still stuck at Low-A ball. That leaves Zavala as the only top 30 prospect that could take over centerfield once the club control on Luis Robert Jr. runs out in 2027.