White Sox, Dylan Cease avoid arbitration

The White Sox avoided arbitration with righty Dylan Cease by agreeing to an $8MM deal, according to Robert Murray of FanSided.

Cease, a client of the Boras Corporation, fell short of our projection in agreeing to a $2.3MM raise over last year’s salary.  As a player with four years of Major League service time, Cease will be eligible for arbitration once more for 2025 before reaching free agency.

Cease, who recently turned 28, had an off-year results-wise in 2023 with his ERA climbing to 4.58.  Still, his 97 starts over the last three seasons leads all of MLB, and he finished second in the 2022 AL Cy Young voting coming off a 2.20 ERA.  Cease averages about 96 miles per hour on his fastball and misses plenty of bats, though he also issues a lot of free passes.

Cease remains one of the top remaining trade candidates of the 2023-24 offseason.  New White Sox GM Chris Getz has been fielding inquiries, and there’s likely at least a half-dozen suitors.  You can read up on the latest Cease rumors here.

At present, though, Cease leads a projected White Sox rotation that also includes new additions Erick Fedde, Mike Soroka, and Chris Flexen, as well as holdover Michael Kopech.