3 monstrous trade packages with enough star power to land Dylan Cease

The Astros have labeled Dylan Cease as their “dream acquisition”

The Houston Astros have found themselves in unchartered territory, trailing the Texas Rangers by four games in the AL West. This has caused a new kind of urgency to emerge out of the Houston faithful, with dream trades floating around the Astros media. Let’s look at a theoretical trade package that could try to net them the White Sox ace, Dylan Cease.

The first thing to note here is that the Astros would likely need to drain their farm system to make this trade. They only have one of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects, leaving them as one of the shallower farm systems in the league. They would need to deal three or four top ten prospects to get the White Sox attention.

From the Astros perspective, they continue their journey in a ‘win now, worry about next year when it comes’ mindset. This has worked well for them year after year and in order to acquire a controllable ace, they’re going to part ways with top prospects. Losing these guys wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario because acquiring Dylan Cease catapults them back in the World Series favorite mix.

For Chicago, this return of prospects could get their attention. Ryan Clifford would provide them a huge power potential outfield prospect to join their team in the coming years. Korey Lee has big power and a hit tool that is showing signs of improvement. He could be a good catching option in the future. Pedro Leon is a tremendous athlete that could fit in the White Sox future, while Spencer Arrighetti will be lights out if he can reel in a small command issue. They would also be able to dump a year and a half of Graveman’s contract as well as four years of Benintendi’s $75 million contract.

This trade may not get the deal done, but it would be a great place to start. Not only would the White Sox net a couple good prospects, but parting ways with those huge contracts could get them to say yes.