The Padres shored up their starting pitching in a big way, announcing Wednesday that they acquired right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease from the Chicago White Sox.
They sent right-handers Steven Wilson, Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte, and outfielder Samuel Zavala to Chicago, President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller said.
Cease, 28, set a career high with 33 starts in 2023 and struck out 214 batters, for his third consecutive season with 30-plus starts and 200-plus strikeouts.
Overall, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound righty went 7-9 with a 4.58 ERA, including a 3.48 ERA versus National League opponents.
In 2022, Cease finished second in the American League Cy Young voting behind Houston’s Justin Verlander, going 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA and a career-best 227 strikeouts, while opponents hit .190 against him.
He ranked second among all AL hurlers that year in ERA, strikeouts, opponent average and hits per nine innings (6.16), and third in strikeouts per nine innings. Cease also set a Major League record by making 14 consecutive starts allowing one earned run or less from May 29-August 11, 2022.
Over five Major League seasons, dating back to 2019, Cease has compiled a 43-35 record with a 3.83 ERA and 792 strikeouts to just 294 walks in 123 career starts. Since his first full season in 2021, he ranks first among all AL pitchers in starts (97) and strikeouts per nine innings (667), tied for fourth in wins (34) and fifth in innings pitched (526.2) and opponent average (.221).
He was originally selected by the Chicago Cubs in the sixth round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft from Milton High School in Georgia before being traded to the White Sox in July 2017.
Cease will wear No. 84 for the Padres.
Wilson, a reliever, spent parts of two seasons with the team, appearing in 50 games with a 3.06 ERA in 2022 and 52 games with a 3.91 ERA last year.
The other three pieces in the trade were prospects. Thorpe’s brief tenure with the Padres came to an end – the team acquired him in the December Juan Soto trade with the Yankees. Baseball named him Pitching Prospect of the Year in October.
