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3 reasons why the St. Louis Cardinals should target Dylan Cease this season
The Cardinals should have their eyes set on White Sox's ace Dylan Cease
The St. Louis Cardinals entered Spring Training with a variety of changes and storylines to follow. Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols have now retired, former Chicago Cub Willson Contreras is now behind the plate, and Jordan Walker is pushing for an Opening Day roster spot, battling many other young bats who have an arguement to get playing time in St. Louis.
One question that worried most fans this offseason was the lack of improvements to the club's starting pitching. After passing on names like Carlos Rodon and other top starters in free agency, the Cardinals are banking on the return of Jack Flaherty and a five-man group that could turn in quality starts day in and day out for their elite lineup. While the lineup continues to impress every day this spring, the Cardinals' starting pitching is already causing some anxiety.
Adam Wainwright's velocity is down in a big way, Jack Flaherty is already experiencing "lower half discomfort", and the rest of the rotation should be solid, but not enough to match other contenders around the league. That's not breaking news to anyone, but the point is being reinforced early on this spring.
While it really is too early to know which starters will actually be available at this year's trade deadline, there is one name that stands out to me right now for the Cardinals' to pursue. If the Cardinals want to win a World Series, they'll need front-line pitching. There'll need to be a team this season that falters and is willing to sell at the deadline in order for this to happen, and there is one team and name I think could line up with St. Louis.
Let's look at three reasons why Chicago White Sox's Dylan Cease should be the Cardinals' primary target this season.
Dylan Cease is one of the best starters in baseball
Entering the 2022 season, there was a lot of buzz that Cease was going to breakout out in a big way. Before debuting in 2019, he was a top prospect in all of baseball, and the 2021 season saw Cease post an elite 12.3 SO/9 in his first full season. And boy, was that buzz right about Cease.
Last season, Cease went 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA and 227 SO in 184 innings while finishing second in the American League Cy Young voting. He recently turned 27 and has a bright future within the game today. Cease became arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason, and will not be a free agent until after the 2025 season.
Cease would give the Cardinals a bonafide ace to lead their rotation, one with the kind of strikeout stuff their rotation sorely lacks at the moment, and under club control for multiple seasons. Finding this kind of starter is rare in today's game, and acquiring such a starter will cost the club a lot of resources.
Luckily for St. Louis, they are probably the best-positioned club in baseball for such a trade.
The Cardinals' have so many assets to package for a guy like Dylan Cease
Should the White Sox choose to trade Cease (more on that later), the Cardinals have so many assets to offer in order to get a deal done.
Just on the Major League roster, names like Dylan Carlson, Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, Juan Yepez, and Alec Burleson all provide great options for a team looking to bring in young, cost controllable assets. While Jordan Walker would be off-limits, perhaps even names like Masyn Winn (due to the Cardinals' middle infield depth), Ivan Herrera, Moises Gomez, Michael McGreevy, or some of their other pitching prospects could be available if needed.
Let's get this out of the way, a trade for Cease would be painful in terms of the kind of prospect capital you would need to give up. Teams just do not trade young aces under team control for one major piece. It would likely take a package of those players to get this done, or at least 2-3 of them headlining the deal with some lower-level prospects involved as well.
But here's the thing. This kind of deal would be worth it for a team like St. Louis. Let's say you take Carlson, Gorman, Burleson, and Gomez out of the club's system, they still have so much young position player talent that they have plenty of players to fill out their lineup and maintain depth options. Even if you had to include a name like Winn in that kind of deal, they still are in a position of strength.
Don't get too up in arms about the specific names I mentioned. The point of this exercise is to show how much talent the Cardinals truly have, how they really can part with a lot of it, and still be set up for success for years to come.
This all hinges on the White Sox deciding that selling is in their best interest, and based on tea leaves, I would not be surprised if Chicago's South Side team has an implosion this season.
The White Sox are trending downward after a disappointing 2022 season
Going into 2022, the White Sox were the favorites to win the AL Central title by quite a bit, and it was pretty much a sure thing that they would be in the playoffs. After finishing the season 81-81 and 11 games back of the Cleveland Guardians, that tune has changed quite a bit.
The Guardians are a young team that figures to improve again this year. The Twins were able to bring back Carlos Correa and made other improvements to their roster this year. What did the White Sox do in response? Well, they signed Andrew Benintendi and Mike Clevinger, the latter is facing multiple allegations that were brought up this offseason.
Multiple players within the White Sox clubhouse have already stressed a need for better unity and communication this coming season, and former long-time slugger Jose Abreu said the team "wasn't a real family" and needed changes organizationally.
For a club that has failed to meet expectations in recent years, this turmoil could compound itself if the club does not start off well in 2023. There are question marks surrounding their pitching staff, and there are a few spots in their lineup that could use improvements, so it's worth monitoring this situation over the coming months.
Should the situation really turn sour, trading someone like Cease and multiple other pieces on the roster could jump-start a rebuild and put them in a really good position for future years. Even if things just don't go as planned, they could retool a lot of their roster with a Cease trade to the Cardinals.
For now, this idea is just that, an idea. But if we know anything about baseball, it's that there are always a few teams that fail to meet expectations, and when that happens multiple years in a row, it can brew a fire sale. Should that happen in Chicago, the Cardinals better aggressively pursue Dylan Cease.
Next. 4 prospects you need to know in Spring Training. dark