Teams continue to show interest in the South Side ace, but Chris Getz doesn’t seem ready to deal him away
Dylan Cease has been one of the hottest free agent discussions of the offseason, and rightfully so. He’s sitting at a career 3.83 ERA, has a second-place Cy Young finish, and usually finishes in the top 5-10 in terms of strikeouts. That slider sure is nasty. White Sox GM, Chris Getz, however, has not found a trade that is enough to justify giving up one of the top pitchers in the league. Recently, trade talks between the White Sox and Yankees have begun to heat up, but as of now, we still have no deal.
Earlier this week, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale also reported that New York is still working to bolster their starting rotation alongside Gerrit Cole, the reigning American League Cy Young winner, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortés, and newly acquired Marcus Stroman – especially since the latter three all struggled with injuries last year, and Dylan Cease is still in his prime at 28 years old. While the Yankees could make a splash and add two Cy Young winners to their pitching staff, as Blake Snell is still available. They are looking for a cheaper option that will still make them competitive in a tough AL East division and to not go over the Competitive Balance Tax.
There have been several “mock trades” floating around, and even the Baseball Trade Values website has featured a trade between these teams on its homepage for the past week.
Naturally, I had to dig into this trade a bit.
There seems to be a positive reaction to this trade for Yankees fans, but White Sox fans are likely more wary of a (potentially risky) prospect-heavy trade without a near-MLB-ready player, myself included.
Nightingale also notes in his article that the White Sox are not entertaining a deal that doesn’t include the Yankees’ top prospect, outfielder Spencer Jones. As you’d expect, the Yankees aren’t keen on sending Jones to the South Side, essentially gambling that Cease performs to the level he did in 2022. The good news for us Sox fans is that Chris Getz seems to be pretty firm on what the return would need to be for a trade to work out.
And there’s certainly a reason why the Yankees don’t want to let Spencer Jones go – especially after blasting a home run in his first Spring Training at-bat. And he’s been on fire over the first three games. In seven at-bats, he’s gotten five hits (including the home run), walked once, and struck out just one time, with a strong .714/.778/1.143 slash line. Sure, it’s only seven at-bats in Spring Training, but at 6´6´´ with that kind of power? It’s almost Aaron Judge level but as a lefty who can also steal 40 bases in a year.
The Players:
Now, if the Yankees aren’t going to dish out Jones, let’s see some other options presented in the above hypothetical trade:
Roderick Arias – Shortstop
Roderick Arias, another of the top Yankees’ prospects – listed as the fourth-best NYY prospect on FanGraphs – is the highest-rated piece of this mock trade. He was signed from the international draft in 2022 as an 18-year-old from the Dominican Republic. While he struggled his first year in the DSL, he greatly improved in 2023, slashing .267/.423/.505 with six homers and 26 RBIs across 27 games in the FCL. He certainly shows a lot of promise, but his injury struggles in his first two seasons caused him to be sidelined quite a bit, not yet playing a full season in the minors.
For me, when I read about his injuries, alarm bells immediately started going off given how prevalent injuries have been for the White Sox over the last several years. Still, it doesn’t sound like they were anything too concerning. Another thing that Chicago would need to consider would be that Colson Montgomery is currently slated to be the South Side starting shortstop within the next couple of years, which begs the question: “How does Arias fit into this equation?” Could he potentially shift over to 2B and finally solve that problem? Of course, this would be several years down the line, and also might not even be an option, but I’ll never stop dreaming of a full-time, quality starting second baseman.
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