Padres' Dylan Cease Gets Brutally Honest About Struggles

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease commented on his struggles so far throughout the 2025 season.

The starter has a 4.53 ERA this season, more than one run higher than his maiden campaign in San Diego during which he placed fourth in National League Cy Young award voting. Cease's strikeout rate has remained consistent, but he has struggled to prevent runs and has just one scoreless outing this season.

“I don’t feel like I’m giving us sort of a chance to win with the consistency as I’d like to, and that’s frustrating,” Cease said. “But I’m just gonna keep working. … I’m just going to take it day-by-day, keep working and try to get in a rhythm as best as I can. I mean, I’ve shown flashes, but it’s really just consistency right now. There really is a lot of season left to make it up.”

Cease came to the Padres from the Chicago White Sox before the 2024 season and made an instant impact in the rotation, leading MLB in starts and posting the second best season of his career by ERA+. He had the lowest WHIP of his career in San Diego, and struck 224 batters out through 189.1 innings.

This season, Cease has been credited with just three wins through 17 starts, and is on pace to shatter the career-high number of losses he posted last season (11). He is allowing 1.9 more hits per nine innings than last year, and his walks per nine innings has also jumped to 3.5.

His start against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday told the story of his season, as he struck out eight batters while allowing four runs through four innings. If Cease can find the consistency he spoke about, there's no doubt he can be a weapon for this Padres rotation.

The Padres will hope their star can get things under control soon, as they are in a dogfight for the final NL Wild Card spot. The Padres dropped the series final against the Reds, lowering them below the threshold for the final spot in the Wild Card. They will look to reclaim the position in a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies beginning Monday at 3:35 p.m.

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