On Tuesday, the Dylan Cease rumor mill picked up enough intensity to distinguish itself from the several months of tepid exchanges and weak leaks that preceded it.
There indeed was a fire underneath all that smoke, although the source might not be the first place people looked. Jeff Passan broke the news this evening: The White Sox are trading Cease to the San Diego Padres.
In return, the White Sox are receiving right-handed pitchers Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte, outfielder Samuel Zavala, and right-handed reliever Steven Wilson.
While the Yankees and Rangers drew most of the intention for their interest in Cease -- and the White Sox's interest in their prospects -- Ken Rosenthal also cited the Padres as a team the White Sox had been scouting heavily.
Thorpe, 23, a second-round pick out of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2022, rose to top-100 status with a dominant first full pro season, going 14-2 with a 2.52 ERA and 182 strikeouts against just 38 walks over 139⅓ innings. He averages 92-94 with his fastball, but his changeup is reportedly the kind of pitch that gets whiffs even when hitters know it's coming. His atypical profile leads to some variation, judging by his spot on the top 100 lists:
- Baseball Prospectus: No. 45
- Baseball America: No. 58
- MLB Pipeline: No. 85
The Yankees sent him over to the Padres in the Juan Soto deal, so he won't have thrown a pitch for the Padres organization in a regular-season game.
Iriarte, 22, racked up 128 strikeouts over 90⅓ innings between High-A Fort Wayne and Double-A San Antonio in 2023. He had a whopping 51 strikeouts over 29⅓ innings at the higher level, but his walk rate spiked as well (17). The Padres considered converting him to relief because of a high-90s fastball/low-80s slider combination, but he's shown the endurance to pitch. Command is the bigger issue.
Zavala, 19, hit .243/.391/.406 over 115 games, most of which were spent with Low-A Lake Elsinore. He bats lefty, can cover center field and draw walks, but contact issues present the biggest obstacle.
Wilson, 28, has pitched in 102 games for the Padres over the last two seasons, posting a 3.48 with 110 strikeouts over 106 innings. He should slot comfortably into a wide-open White Sox bullpen, although he only has one save to his name.
Cease, who was the secondary component of the return for José Quintana in 2017, ended up making a case for the best player of the rebuild trades. Cease went 43-35 with a 3.83 ERA over 123 starts spanning five seasons. He peaked in 2022 with a runner-up Cy Young finish, but while he was erratic in some regards (twice leading the league in walks and wild pitches), he was incredibly consistent when it came to taking the ball. He made 32, 32 and 33 starts over the last three seasons, and also started 12 games during the 60-game schedule in 2020.
The trade leaves the White Sox with Luis Robert Jr. as the only projectably above-average player, and ... Michael Soroka? Erick Fedde? Chris Flexen? ... as the Opening Day starter. We'll also find out if a Michael Lorenzen signing is incoming to soak up some of Cease's starts.
We livestreamed our reaction below on our YouTube channel.
