For the second-straight winter, Dylan Cease can't be sure where he'll be plying his trade come spring training.
He handled the awkwardness well enough in 2024, because "unbothered" is Cease's default setting. Chris Getz spent the entire offseason shopping him around before finding an acceptable offer from San Diego, and they agreed to the trade on March 13. Cease went on to lead the league in starts for the third time in four seasons. Along with the quantity, he regained a fair amount of quality that eluded him the year before -- a 3.47 ERA thanks to a reduced walk rate, and a fourth-place finish in Cy Young voting.
Nevertheless, he finds himself in the exact same spot, with his team hoping to find some other club that finds him more indispensable. Unlike the White Sox, who already had lost 101 games and didn't see a path to payoff before Cease hit free agency after the 2025 season, the Padres are ostensibly contending. They're just in a jam because Peter Seidler isn't around anymore. The Padres already had their hands full after the collapse of their RSN, but now legal motions filed between Seidler's wife and his brothers as to who holds controlling interest in the team further gum up the works.
The Twins' reported interest in Cease has been documented the longest, although they're the San Diego of the American League when it comes to biding time around RSN and ownership uncertainty, so they're not a great partner for taking on a significant salary without sending some back. Jon Heyman said the Mets and Cubs have inquired, and I'm mainly watching this because of the kicker on Tom Krasovic's column in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Forecast: If Preller trades Cease, he’ll get more for him than the Padres gave up to get Cease from the White Sox — even though Cease now costs more and is a year closer to free agency.
It's entirely possible, and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. It's also possible that the Padres will discover what the White Sox found out: Replacing his reliability without missing a step is harder than it looks.
Spare Parts
Tim Anderson says that being away from baseball made him miss the game, and he's hoping he's fully recovered from compromised mechanics and off-the-field drama to give him his best chance at fighting his way onto the Angels roster. He also threw this little bit of red meat out there for White Sox fans:
“It goes down to each individual, how bad you wanted it.
“We can look over the course of those years, and we can tell who wanted it and who didn’t, from top to bottom. If you ask people throughout those years who laid it on the line and who fought for what we were trying to accomplish ... that’s enough to say about that.”
Speaking of players to whom Anderson may have been alluding, I hadn't seen Yoán Moncada's name in a long time. This may or may not count as movement on that front, because Mark W. Sanchez said the Yankees asked for Moncada's medical information early in the offseason and haven't inquired further.
With Patrick Mahomes and Nikola Jokić at the tops of their respective sports despite past-prime physiques and unremarkable speeds, verticals, etc., Rustin Dodd presents a good look at the way other skills can come together to expand the definition of athleticism.
- Tommy Kahnle not picky about role with Detroit -- Detroit Free Press
- Before signing Carlos Estévez, Royals pursued Anthony Santander -- The Athletic
Two AL Central contenders added high-leverage relievers this past week, but the Royals were attempting to work out a shorter-term deal with Anthony Santander with opt-outs before the Blue Jays made the math simpler for him with a five-year offer.
Two more things: The Royals designated Braden Shewmake for assignment to make room for Estévez, and Kahnle's Zoom room looks exactly like you'd think it would:
- The lockouts will continue, regardless of morale -- Baseball Prospectus
- MLB commissioner Rob Manfred reflects on decade spent putting 'my mark on the game' -- The Athletic
Rob Manfred is treating a lockout after the 2026 season as a given, and the metaphor he used wasn't remotely reassuring: "Manfred drew a distinction. Compared to an in-season work stoppage, he said the offseason variety is 'like using a .22 (caliber firearm), as opposed to a shotgun or a nuclear weapon.'"
Hannah Keyser wrote about her varied experiences attempting to find suitable places to pump at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium during the postseason, which is one of a number of reasons why you don't see many mothers on MLB beats. It includes some specifics on the hell of pumping that I wasn't aware of until Mini Margalus entered the chat, so if the openness of this post helps you to avoid saying, "I didn't know until I became a father that...", you'll be ahead of where I was.
