The San Diego Padres are reportedly listening to trade offers for ace Dylan Cease, but it doesn’t seem likely they’ll trade him before the season starts.
Instead, the Padres could look to trade him closer to the trade deadline if they’re out of contention. While their roster is very talented, the National League has a lot of teams that could sit ahead of the Friars by the trade deadline.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently predicted the Padres would trade Cease to the Atlanta Braves in a blockbuster deal this season.
“It’s plenty plausible for five months from now, though, if the quintet of Arizona, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia is as good as it ought to be, putting San Diego in a spot where getting something in exchange for the players likely to leave in November is a better option than just going down with the ship,” Miller wrote. “And perhaps this is where two of the most oft-mentioned, active GMs in baseball finally get a deal done with each other. San Diego’s AJ Preller and Atlanta’s Alex Anthopoulos have only made one trade since the latter joined his current club in late 2017, and it was a bit of a nothing swap two Decembers ago.”
A return for Cease would be huge, likely landing the Padres one of the Braves’ top pitching prospects. Alongside a top pitching prospect, the Braves would need to add a few more players to sweeten the deal. At that point, it would make sense for San Diego to move on from the expiring ace.
The Padres likely can’t afford to re-sign Cease next off-season. Spotrac projects the star to sign for $108 million, but his real price tag could be even higher.
Acquiring Cease and returning Spencer Strider from the IL would give the Braves arguably the best starting rotation in baseball. It would be the kind of rotation that could carry Atlanta to another World Series.
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