The San Diego Padres shocked the baseball world when they swooped in and traded for right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease right before the team left for Korea.
Cease joined Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove to form a formidable top of the rotation in San Diego, and already looked sharp in his Padres debut.
Cease pitched two innings in the Padres' exhibition game against the LG Twins, striking out two while allowing a solo home run. He'll make his regular season debut when the team returns to the States.
The addition of Cease surely added a spark to the Padres' clubhouse, and his new teammate, Xander Bogaerts, had some high praise for the 28-year-old pitcher.
“Really good stuff, really good pitches,” Bogaerts said. “Very live fastball, good breaking balls. If you want to talk about stuff, I feel like he’s definitely up there with some of the best in the game.”
Cease was one of the best in the game in 2022, when he had a 2.20 ERA and struck out 227 in 184 innings of work.
However, things took a turn for the worse in 2023, when his ERA ballooned to 4.58 in 177 innings of work. It was his worst season since his debut year in 2019.
Cease knows what he did wrong in 2023, though, and believes he'll get back to his elite self in 2024. The Padres are banking on getting that version of Cease in 2024 and 2025, before he hits free agency after the 2025 season.
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