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This isn’t the first time that Dylan Cease has been here: Tumbling ferociously in the trade rumor mill.
“There were a lot of rumors last year,” Cease said Saturday at Padres FanFest at Petco Park. “I feel like it’s really just part of it. I really don’t take it in a negative way.”
Last year’s rumors led to the White Sox trading Cease to the Padres as they prepared to board a mid-March flight to Seoul, South Korea.
Where this year’s rumors lead is anyone’s guess at this point.
Two teams the Padres figure to be fighting for wild-card positioning — the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets — have been linked to Cease trade rumors, but almost every team would have use for a pitcher sitting on four straight 200-strikeout seasons and two top-four Cy Young finishes.
Especially at a reasonable rate.
The 29-year-old right-hander agreed in January to a $13.75 million salary, up from last year’s $8 million payday. But Cease will be a free agent after the season, and with the Padres’ projected payroll at about $196 million, the team might have to subtract in order to address a giant need in left field while also backfilling the rotation.
Right-hander Michael King’s $7.75 million deal to avoid arbitration on Friday might even increase the likelihood that it is Cease who is traded to create additional cashflow to address the team’s needs.
Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez ($14 million) and Robert Suarez ($10 million) have also been mentioned in trade rumors to help the Padres reallocate their resources, as has King, though it’s highly unlikely that both King and Cease would be moved.
“I would be shocked, but obviously anything can happen,” King said a day after signing his deal for this year. “I didn’t think I was going to get traded over here that offseason last year. Anything can happen.”
The Padres are expected to field a payroll approaching the top-10 in the game, although that could happen based solely on current commitments, arbitration raises and simply paying for Arraez after the Marlins paid his salary down per the terms of last year’s trade.
The team’s offseason only offseason activity to date is re-signing catcher Elías Díaz ($3.5 million), trading for depth reliever Ron Marinaccio and agreeing to deals with their arbitration-eligible players.
King’s new deal created a bit more cash flow — he received a $3 million signing bonus on top of a $1 million salary and will receive a $3.75 million buyout after the season if he and the team don’t agree on a highly unlikely $15 million mutual option for 2026 — and it’s widely thought that the Padres will have to make a trade of some sort if the team doesn’t increase payroll beyond the current projection.
For his part, Cease has not had that discussion with Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller. In the same vein, King has not been approached with a long-term extension, he said.
The only thing they hear on the trade front are the rumors and their own friendly shots across the bow.
“It’s part of the business,” King said. “I think it’s fun, though. Dylan and I always joke around about it. Obviously you’re going to hear it but you want to make fun of it.”
Said Cease: “I think it’s a good opportunity to get some good jabs in there.”
Roster developments
Pitchers and catchers won’t report for a little more than two weeks, but Padres manager Mike Shildt revealed a few key decisions leading into camp: Xander Bogaerts will man shortstop, which makes Jake Cronenworth the second baseman, and left-hander Adrián Morejón will remain in the bullpen.
The latter was developed as a starting pitcher, but has endured more than a dozen trips to the injured list since signing in July 2016 and hadn’t pitched wire to wire in a season until throwing 63⅔ innings (2.83 ERA) out of the bullpen last year.
“Adrián has found a really nice niche in the bullpen,” Shildt said. “It’s a spot that we think he’s not only going to do as well as he did last year, but take the next step and he’s excited about remaining in the bullpen and just being a dominant guy in that spot.”
As for Bogaerts, he was told last spring that he was moving to second base to allow Ha-Seong Kim to man shortstop only to have to flip back across the diamond in September after Kim’s season-ending shoulder injury. The Padres have other former shortstops on the roster in Cronenworth, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill, but they ultimately decided to turn back to the player they signed for $280 million to fill hole left by Kim’s departure as a free agent.
“Had a great conversation with Bogey about a month ago with A.J.,” Shildt said. “He had already had his head around wanting and training to go back to play shortstop. Very enthusiastic about it.”
Still here for him
By choosing the Dodgers over the Padres and the Blue Jays, Roki Sasaki seemingly has an endless wealth of resources at his disposal in Los Angeles.
Few pitchers, however, have jumped from Japan to Major League Baseball as Yu Darvish has and the 38-year-old veteran expects to continue to make himself available as a mentor of sorts to the 24-year-old Sasaki.
“We’ll see the season pans out for Roki,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “He may some adversity that he needs to overcome, some hard times that he needs to overcome and if he does reach out to me in those moments, obviously I will give him the support that I can give him. I think its important to do that not only as a player, but as a human being.”
Darvish said he spoke with Sasaki occasionally during his courtship, but “not like we were into deep conversation.” After choosing the Dodgers, Sasaki did reach out to Darvish personally, Darvish said.
“It ultimately comes down to what the player wants to do, so you have to live with that,” Darvish said. “As far as what we did, I think we put in a great plan, made our pitch, made our presentation … but things came up a little short for us.”
Feeling good
Both Tatis and Manny Machado said they’ve had normal offseasons following a 2024 season impacted by injuries to varying degrees.
Machado was coming off elbow surgery and was relegated to DH duty until he was ready to throw consistently across the diamond. Tatis missed more than two months with a stress reaction in his right quad, but he carried the team offensively in the postseason.
“I haven’t felt this good since the offseason of 2020 coming into 2021,” Tatis said. “Feels great. My body’s in a great spot. My swing is in an amazing spot. Definitely looking forward to what this year is going to be.”
Added Machado on his elbow: “Feels good. Feels great. Kind of feels like it’s back to normal. It’s been a different offseason. I’ve been able to do a lot of the things I’ve done in the past. The swing’s feeling a lot better, the throwing’s been feeling a lot better from this point last year. So it feels like I’m in a good spot.”
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