As Opening Day draws near, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Dodgers, Padres wrap up Spring Training:
Both the Dodgers and Padres will play their final games of Spring Training today as they prepare for their trip to Seoul, South Korea for a two-game regular season set that will occur a week prior to the rest of the league’s Opening Day. Today’s games will feature both clubs’ starters for Game 2 of the series as they get their final preseason work in before the regular season kicks off. The Dodgers are welcoming the Mariners to Camelback Ranch at 3:05pm ET this afternoon, where right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take on youngster Bryan Woo. Meanwhile, the Padres will host the A’s at 3:10pm ET with right-hander Joe Musgrove facing off against veteran righty Ross Stripling.
2. Cease back in the rumor mill?
Right-hander Dylan Cease was the talk of the offseason early in the winter, frequently connected to upwards of half a dozen clubs while White Sox brass made clear that their staff ace was available for the right price. Over the course of the offseason, it eventually became clear that price was too high for interested teams to stomach, and the South Siders entered Spring Training with the expectation that Cease would remain in Chicago to open the year. With just two weeks until Opening Day, it appears some clubs are making a late push to land the righty before the season begins. A report yesterday indicated that the Yankees have returned to the negotiating table in the wake of Gerrit Cole’s recent elbow issues. They aren’t the only team that continues to talk to the Sox about Cease, however, as the Rangers have also reportedly had recent discussions with the club regarding the right-hander. Will the renewed talks lead to a buzzer-beating deal before Opening Day?
3. Williams receiving second opinion:
Brewers closer Devin Williams has been slowed by back issues this spring, and today is expected to meet with a spine specialist in California to receive a second opinion in hopes of ruling out a more serious injury. Williams, 29, is coming off his first season as the full-time closer in Milwaukee and enjoyed a dominant 2023 campaign. In 61 appearances, the right-hander struck out 37.7% of batters faced while pitching to an excellent 1.53 ERA and racking up 36 saves. If Williams were to miss significant time due to injury, it would be a major blow to Milwaukee’s chances in a crowded NL Central division. A lengthy absence could also complicate any midseason efforts to shop Williams ahead of his final year of team control in 2025, should the Brewers fall out of the race early and consider selling at the deadline. Should Williams begin the season on the injured list, the club would likely turn to right-handers Joel Payamps and Abner Uribe for late-inning duties.
Is Payamps really first in line for Milwaukee? What about Megill?
Payamps was lights out for us last year. It seems they view Abner as the next closer once Williams is gone, but while he works on command I’d suspect Payamps would get closing opportunities.
I don’t see the logic for the Yankees to spend big on young players (cheap young players) to get Cease, who could end up being a Vazquez/Gray performer in pinstripes, or spending big on a Cole/Montgomery signing. They aren’t championship caliber–and none of those three make them that was. Too much dead money on roster, too many draft-picks and international signing $ given up.
Not sure why you don’t feel they “could” win it all. Their team is good enough to get to the post season and in this stupid system of adding more and more clubs for added revenues, any team can get hot in October.
Dbacks are a prime example of just that in 2023, and Fox fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
Oriole’s Westburg and a younger prospect to Sox liking for 2 years of #3 rotation guy Cease. Does that get it done?
Or Westburg and international pool money (1 mil or so)?
No sir Jeff. Remember the Sox gm is looking at him as if he were Tom Seaver in his prime. Our logic does not compute here for this player.
Say it ain’t so Joe, say it ain’t so. Oh well, good luck to that Sox gm fella.
He’s banking on desperation and as the saying goes, “don’t hold your breath”.
lol Jeff. He may get eventually what he is looking for. Remember the other gm’s are all watching each other. With their egos and reputations on the line in their minds, they will not want to be the one who overpays and looks like an idiot to all of the others. These are the things that the Sox gm does not think about or consider.
I think the Reds actually gave up less for Seaver in 1977 than the Sox are asking for Cease.
Honestly, Baltimore can just move on. You guys don’t have enough pitching to offer back. Cowser and Mayo are overrated. You guys can just move on, and work with what you got. Keep dumpster diving boys. We are gonna work with the teams that are interested in eating steak!
Cowser and Mayo are not overrated at all. Both will be very good, if not great, big league players for a long time.
Cowser and Mayo. Overrated? Heck if I know. That said, the publications that evaluate talent don’t think so.
If the Sox are looking for future pitching help, Os Carter Baumler should definitely be on their radar. Can’t see Baltimore moving him but maybe? Westburg and Baumler for Cease?
The White Sox could have landed DL Hall from the Orioles. Instead the Os traded him for Corbin Burnes.
BAL has the money to sign Snell or Montgomery if the will was there. If they can stomach a $12M salary for one year they could have Shane Bieber for any right-handed run producer. CLE doesn’t need any young pitching in return.
Baltimore probably won’t make any big signings until ownership changes later in the season. And even if they did doesn’t mean they should commit to years for Monty or Snell no other team will commit to either. Pretty sure the Orioles are not going to rush into bad deals when they are ready to start spending again. And I’m not sure trading for Bieber makes the O’s better enough relative to what Cleveland wants for him. He’s still good but not the same pitcher he used to be. The O’s have a couple of good prospects in the minors that are not as good as Bieber currently is but could be rotation contributors pretty soon. Good enough that the O’s would probably won’t let go of them except for a Dylan Cease I’m guessing.
Altogether possible that Sox leaked to amp-up return from Yankees (or some other team). We talk about Boras playing the “lots of offers” game, but there’s no reason why a team looking to offload a player wouldn’t do the same thing–especially for a high price.
It was absolutely the White Sox pushing the Yankees..
I think the Sox might have zero offers and dropping these to drum up business since they were told to get lost at their ridiculous price previously.
Cease is good but not as good as the asking price but he is better than snell
@GSWfanklay – Got that backwards. Snell is a better version of Cease. Snell is a legit ace when healthy. Cease is a #3… maybe 2.
Career Numbers tell it all
LHP Snell = 3.20 ERA, 3.44 FIP, 3.62 xFIP
RHP Cease = 3.83 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 4.02 xFIP
By any runs allowed metric, Snell is much better. The only thing which helps get Cease closer to Snell is the durability.
martras and GSWf
“@GSWfanklay – Got that backwards. Snell is a better version of Cease. Snell is a legit ace when healthy. Cease is a #3… maybe 2.
Career Numbers tell it all
LHP Snell = 3.20 ERA, 3.44 FIP, 3.62 xFIP
RHP Cease = 3.83 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 4.02 xFIP
By any runs allowed metric, Snell is much better. The only thing which helps get Cease closer to Snell is the durability.”
FanGraphs DC projections
Snell 3.52 ERA, 3.73 FIP, 2.9 fWAR, 3.5 RA-9 WAR
Cease 4.00 ERA, 4.05 FIP, 3.1 fWAR, 2.9 RA-9 WAR
No sir. Cease is not as good as Snell IMHO.
Lost in all the buzz is the fact that Cease had one really good year two years ago. What was Steve Stone worth two years after he won the AL Cy Young?
Here’s hoping Devin Williams gets some good news. I wouldn’t wish back issues onto anybody. That can even mess up regular life stuff.