The White Sox have already traded five pitchers in advance of Tuesday evening’s trade deadline. While other players such as Keynan Middleton and Aaron Bummer are candidates to still be moved, could an even bigger splash be on the horizon?
According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox are entertaining offers for their entire roster — including franchise cornerstone Dylan Cease. The 27-year-old starter remains under team control through the 2025 season.
While Rosenthal mentions that many around the league believe that the White Sox view Cease and all-star outfielder Luis Robert Jr. as “all but untouchable,” the fact that the White Sox are receiving and at least entertaining offers is still interesting. Given that Robert Jr. is under team control for four more seasons after the current campaign, it is highly unlikely that a team could come even close to providing a package that matches his value.
However, with two seasons (plus the remainder of 2023) of team control, Dylan Cease is more realistically attainable and would be the crown jewel of a trade deadline that has already included a Max Scherzer trade. Teams such as the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, and Cincinnati Reds — young, potentially playoff-bound groups with strong farm systems that are simultaneously in need of frontline pitching — would likely be interested in Cease if he were available.
Despite the “all but untouchable” line, Rosenthal implies that the White Sox, like any team, would trade Cease if their (understandably high) valuation is met. The 2023 trade deadline is objectively a seller-friendly market, and playoff teams are becoming desperate for pitching as the deadline nears and options come off the board. As a result, a Dylan Cease trade would likely only materialize in the final hours before the trade deadline, and only when a contending team offers a package that may include multiple top-100 prospects. In any case, the White Sox are at least listening to offers, which differs from earlier reports that have indicated that the team would not even consider trading Cease, Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez, or Andrew Vaughn.
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Featured Photo: © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
Again Mr. Rosenthal and his cronies throwing crap out there!
You start trading the likes of Cease or Robert what do you have left to build around…..a bunch of maybe potential major players. Really not making any sense. Plus just about every MLB team would love to rape the Sox’s for those two.