MLB Rumors: Insider reveals why Dylan Cease trade is less likely than ever

If there's anything we've learned this offseason, it's that starting pitching is king. Good and reliable starting pitching is extremely hard to find, and teams are willing to pay for it.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has all the potential in the world to be elite, but he fetched the richest contract for a pitcher in MLB history without throwing a single MLB pitch from the Dodgers. Even older starters coming off down seasons like Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson got eight-figure deals from the Cardinals for one season. Frankie Montas got $16 million from the Reds after recording just four outs last season. Chris Sale was traded for six seasons of Vaughn Grissom despite his consistent struggle to stay healthy.

Starting pitching being as valuable as it is, happens to be why the Chicago White Sox are placing such a premium on Dylan Cease. It's gotten to the point where the right-hander who was once seen as likely to move, now feels more likely to stay in Chicago through this offseason than ever.

Outrageous price tag put on Dylan Cease is why a trade feels less likely to occur than ever

Jon Heyman of the NY Post reported, "The price for Cease is said by one GM (not Baltimore’s) to be 'the sun and the moon.'"

In order for teams to get two years of Cease, they're going to have to give up an unthinkable amount in terms of value.

Cease has proven he can be great in this league. He was the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2022 and has some of the best strikeout stuff in the game, but he followed up his breakout season with a very disappointing one in 2023. Cease was still good for the White Sox and was the victim of some really poor defense played behind him, but he had a 4.58 ERA and a 4.07 xERA. He certainly didn't pitch like an ace, let alone one worth giving up "the sun and the moon" for.

The White Sox seem hellbent on either getting every single one of their demands met, or they're keeping Cease. They have every right to do this and it could wind up paying off when teams get desperate around the trade deadline, but they're also risking another down year or potentially an injury to occur.

The White Sox are not planning on competing in 2024, so it seems like a huge risk to take when if Cease suffers a serious injury, they could be stuck with him with no trade whatsoever.

Unless the White Sox lower their demands, it feels less than likely that a deal is going to happen. Teams are focusing on pulling off other trades or signing free agents over giving up an arm and a leg for Cease.