An increasingly quiet offseason rightfully brought frustration, fear, and anxiety among Friars faithful, but president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has once again pulled a rabbit or two out of his hat.
The rabbits in question are the February acquisitions of Korean Baseball Organization’s Cy Young-equivalent winner in southpaw Kyle Hart and the blockbuster signing of Boston Red Sox veteran right-hander Nick Pivetta.
With all of the roster improvement as of late, a familiar question has been swirling around the rumor mill all offseason long: Is Dylan Cease going to be traded?
The current pitching rotation, regardless of who ends up taking the No. 5 spot, will be formidable to MLB offenses everywhere, but trade chatter keeps coming back to Cease.
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee reported that the 29-year-old right-hander is likely to be rostered by the Padres on Opening Day, but there is a caveat.
Despite Acee’s source claiming the organization is leaning towards keeping Cease he said, “One caveat was that other teams could become more desperate for pitching as spring goes on, which could mean the Padres are tempted by a return greater than they were offered during the offseason.”
It is an interesting notion that the returns for Cease haven’t quite been up to a tradable standard for San Diego, but keeping the right-hander for now could certainly garner a better return down the line.
Especially in a world where pitchers potentially go down with injury or simply do not live up to their spring training standards, it makes sense to hold onto your assets. But with the career-year Cease just had, perhaps holding onto him for the long haul is more conducive to the Friars.
Last season, Cease improved his ERA, WAR, win total, and strikeout-to-walk ratio from the year prior.
He finished the regular season fourth in Cy Young award voting, going 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA, 224 strikeouts to only 65 walks, a WAR of 4.2, and did all of this over 189.1 innings pitched.
