On March 13, late in the afternoon, White Sox general manager Chris Getz broke the initial announcement of Dylan Cease’s trade to the Padres.
Getz intended to warn his one-time ace just as he had made contact during the rumor-filled offseason months, as word had spread on social media that the deal was almost finalized.
But in the process of informing Cease of the relocation, Getz also woke him up from his sleep.
“I believe that he was just about to nod off, and Dylan is the only person on the earth who has the potential to doze off again. “I’m fairly sure he did,” a beaming Getz remarked. “I told you that I will give you a call in a few hours to let you know if it was final or not.
“Throughout the years, many deals fall through for a variety of reasons. He says he didn’t take a nap when I asked him if he did so when I phoned him back. I have a sneaking suspicion that he actually dozed off.
Getz’s story was a part of an interview he did this week with MLB.com to go over more specifics of the trade that sent Cease to San Diego in exchange for right-handers Steven Wilson, Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte, and Samuel Zavala, a 19-year-old outfielder. Getz said that in the end, “we felt were worth really breaking down, and we talked at length” about two noteworthy offers.
According to a baseball source who spoke with MLB.com, Texas was the second team in play, but the Padres made the White Sox an offer that included their finest young pitcher. Almost all 29 teams checked in early in the offseason as part of the process, with some clubs demonstrating a more genuine interest and others only conducting due diligence.
Getz explained, “You’ve got free agency and various ways to plug needs on a club operating through the offseason.” Consequently, it greatly influenced the ebb and flow of conversations. There were moments when it seemed to be heating up a lot and then cooling down.
“Now that we were ready to actually close a deal, we thought, ‘Well, we need to bring in players who we feel can benefit our Major League club while also strengthening our farm system and helping us move forward.'” Whether it was a trade or even a free agent signing, we approached every decision we made with that kind of mentality.
Winter Meetings talks concerning Cease in Nashville were characterized by Getz as general conversations, and nothing where he felt a deal was getting done. Cease finished second in the 2022 American League Cy Young voting, and followed up that effort by striking out 214 over 177 innings in ‘23 while setting a career-high with 33 starts but also featuring a 4.58 ERA. So, Getz felt as if teams needed to see Cease pitch during Spring Training before adding certain players to the trade.
