In a market starved for pitching, the White Sox hold a wild card in Dylan Cease.
And while he appears to be there for the taking, it won’t happen until another club — the Yankees are among his suitors — offers the return that the White Sox believe he is worth.
“All it takes is one team to want to jump out and get a deal done,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz told Chicago reporters on Tuesday. “In the case of Dylan, I don’t think there’s a club out there that hasn’t expressed some level of interest in him. All their situations are different.
“If we feel like there’s a fit that improves our club, we’ll strongly consider it. Certainly that hasn’t happened at this point.”
The Yankees, still with a hole in their rotation after missing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, are far from alone in their interest in Cease, the 28-year-old right-hander who has two more years of team control.
But whether they have the appetite (or ability) to give up the package of prospects the White Sox are seeking remains to be seen, especially after already trading Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito to the Padres for Juan Soto earlier this offseason.
Executives who have been in contact with the White Sox on Cease said the asking price was three premium prospects, The Post’s Joel Sherman has reported.
The Yankees’ stiffest competition for Cease may come from their own division.
The Orioles, the reigning AL East champs, have one of the top farm systems in the game and would appear to be well-positioned to put together an attractive package for Cease to bolster their young rotation.
Projected to make around $8.8 million (per MLB Trade Rumors) in arbitration in 2024, Cease may also fit the Orioles’ budget better than the top free-agent arms like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.
The Dodgers, who have already dominated the offseason, cannot be counted out either as another suitor.
“We’ve had conversations about Dylan Cease, but I also know that we’re not going to move a player like Dylan or anyone else unless we feel like we’re going to benefit,” Getz said. “It’s gotta be the right fit for all parties. A lot of these conversations are ongoing. There’s a lot that goes into any sort of trade transaction. There’s a lot of conversations, build-up, research and obviously getting it to the finish line. As part of the offseason, we’ll continue to do that to find ways to get our club better.”
The White Sox may wait until Snell and Montgomery sign to drive up the bidding among the teams that don’t land them. Getz said it was “tough to tell” whether that would be the case.
“When you bring up some of these higher-profile players and the impact that it may have on Dylan or others, it applies to some but not all,” Getz said. “Every organization has different types of players. Those players, how they apply to your club, those are all different factors that go into making a decision.”
If no team offers the package they are looking for, the White Sox could conceivably go into the season with Cease in their rotation and deal him at the trade deadline, though that would come with the risk of him getting injured.
“It’s ever evolving in terms of the urgency of other clubs,” Getz said. “It could be in the offseason. It could be at the deadline. It could be in May. There’s just so many different factors when you’re talking about 29 other clubs.”
Asked whether the White Sox would be looking for near-ready MLB talent or prospects at the lower levels of the minors, Getz sounded interested in a mix.
“For sustainability, it’s important to, if you’re able to find a trade, that you want it to help you both in the short term and long term,” Getz said.
“So potentially there could be players that go to our minor league system, certainly could help our major league club. You certainly want this to be a balancing attack. You hope you’re able to benefit immediately. Sometimes that’s not the case. We’re looking for ways to get better both short term and long term.”
