Snowy Demon

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/giants-to-sign-jordan-hicks.html

One consideration that people forget is Cease's contract. Obviously, Cease will get $8 million. Due to tax purposes, it will be $16 millions for the Yankees, Mets, and Dodgers. It will be about $14 millions for the Braves. It will be $8 millions for the Orioles.

No doubt. Still the question is would Montgomery, Flaherty and others been worth more before the season? I think they would have been.

I doubt it will be one or two extra pitchers. There will be many others become available just like every year. About a year ago, not many would have predicted Flaherty, Montgomery, Scherzer, Verlander, Civale, and Bieber (injured just before the deadline) would be available.

If there is only Cease, it could be. Too many dynamics to make this absolute certainty. If Milwaukee does not contend, you will see Burnes (and possibly Peralta) being available. Miami could make others available. If a team is looking at just a post season, this team can look at 2 separate rental for 2 seasons. Keep in mind that Cease does not have post season track record. He had one not so good start where he struggled with control. There is no way he can be judge by this. He simply has no real post season experience.

Dylan Cease is an obvious trade candidate. There are others that have been mentioned over the past 2 months: Braxton Garrett, Mitch Keller, Brian Woo, Jesus Luzardo, Framber Valdez, etc. Of course, who knows if they are really available.

Yes, hope is not a strategy.

With prospect trades, no one "wins" the trade until many years down the road

That would be disgusting.

Another question is what is "top end" prospect means to the White Sox? All subjective and no substance.

I am not sure about the Cardinals. Their projected starting rotation age is 35 and questionable bullpen. Goldschmidt is 37 this year with declining bat speed. Cincinnati looks better than the Cardinals.

Isn't that how they show love in New York?

Honestly, Yankees' disaster is a welcome sight. ?

Interesting. Camden Yard will also cause issues for Cease since LH power hitters do so much better there.

How was Cease against LH hitters? Yankees Stadium is a LH hitter friendly stadium (to say it mildly).

Is it also possible that the White Sox front office thinks AL Central can be won with Cease being with White Sox? AL Central is the weakest division in MLB. After all, a team only needs to get into the playoff. Two teams barely got into the playoff made to the World Series in 2023.

This is good concept in theory, but each team should make the best trade that will help the respective team. One key thing in negotiating tactic is to prepare to walk away. In this case, the White Sox clearly prefer Orioles prospects over all other teams "linked" to Cease. Other teams dropped out such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Dodgers. Now, NYY and NYM are "involved" according to these reports. Only constant is the Orioles. Mike Elias does not seem like a person who gets desperate or any external factors influence him. It is also Getz's prerogative to wait until TDL.

Is this a news?

Greinke was another. He was good but $30+ millions per year then were way too much.

"Jim Bowden is a former baseball executive that I am so glad that he is not the GM of my favorite team."

Little contradictory here. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/latest-on-mets-offseason-plans.html

Could be related to no sticky stuff like many.

https://youtu.be/j4XT-l-_3y0?si=CmEAVhKC-WhUiqEG

It seems more than ever that TDL deals are rentals only. I guess the worse case is Brandon Woodruff situation. One thing that is concerning is Cease has never been pitch efficient. His pitches/innings pitched for the past 3 years is by far the highest in MLB. He is even higher than Snell.

It is interesting that NL Central teams have #2, #3, #4, and #5 ranked farm systems in baseball. St Louis is the one that does not have a highly ranked system. You can make a case for every one of those teams to make Cease trade.