The San Diego Padres may be able to move their ace Dylan Cease before the start of the 2025 MLB season.
Padres could deal Dylan Cease to Red Sox
Fastball on SI’s Sam Connon relayed this report from MassLive which shed light on the Boston Red Sox’s interest in Cease:
“According to MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam, the Red Sox have spoken with the San Diego Padres about possibly trading for starting pitcher Dylan Cease. Boston’s interest is leaning more towards ‘due diligence’ than ‘aggressive pursuit,’ per McAdam, but there have at least been preliminary discussions of some kind,” Connon wrote.
Padres could benefit from dealing Cease
While the positives of retaining Cease greatly outweigh the negatives, San Diego could still achieve some of their goals by moving him during Spring Training. The Padres want to save money by moving off of his expiring deal.
San Diego and the 29-year-old avoided arbitration this offseason with a one-year, $13.75 million agreement. Once Cease hits the open market in 2026, he could garner an annual average value of well over $20 million.
Thus, with the Padres already strapped with Xander Bogaerts’ contract, the franchise could cut costs to better position them to re-tool their rotation while addressing the other areas of their roster. Nonetheless, Cease is one of the best pitchers in the MLB. The strikeouts artist finished No. 3 in the Majors with a sweltering 224 strikeouts last time out.
Should San Diego not be able to come to terms on a move with Boston, he’d be as good a frontline starter as there is in the big leagues for them next season.