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Padres Receive $200 Million Dylan Cease Update

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Nate Lunak | Last updated Apr 15, 2025 12:29 PM ET

The San Diego Padres are off to an amazing start in 2025, currently sporting a 14-3 record, which is the most wins of any MLB team and sit atop the NL West with the San Fransico Giants (12-4) in second and Los Angeles Dodgers in third (12-6).

Of course, though, even though they're on an impressive hot streak, there's nothing wrong with looking into the future and once the season concludes, the Padres will have some major decisions to make.

One of them revolves around starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who is set to become a free agent after the year, with Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors believing he will earn a significant payday while reviewing some big names set to hit the open market.

"With a strong season, Cease will have the best shot at cracking $200MM of any pitcher on this list," Adams wrote. "He should command at least six years, with a good chance at seven and an outside possibility of eight."

Throughout his career, which started in 2019, Cease has been effective, starting 160 games while compiling 867.2 innings, a 3.82 ERA, an 111 ERA+, a 1.259 WHIP, 1,040 strikeouts and 15.2 WAR.

When you pair that with finishing top five in Cy Young voting twice and top 25 in MVP voting twice, there's no doubt that Cease has proved to be a valuable asset to whichever team he's on.

However, it's unclear if the Padres would be willing to hand out that kind of money, considering their total payroll is already at $209.3 million, which is the ninth highest of any MLB team.

Another big aspect is that teammate and starting pitcher, Michael King, is slated to become a free agent after the 2026 season, and Spotrac predicts his market value will earn him a four-year, $71.2 million deal.

It could very easily become a situation where the Padres are going to have to choose who to keep, and potentially paying King much less than Cease might come into the equation.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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