Dodgers’ rumored involvement in trade for star pitcher gaining steam

Some of baseball's most prominent journalists have really put their foot in it this offseason, and perhaps none more resoundingly than MLB Network's Jon Morosi. He'll never live down those "Megastar Shohei Ohtani is on the plane to Toronto" tweets, no matter how reliable he thought his sources were. Although that flub was quickly debunked and worked out in the Dodgers' favor, another rabbit hole he led us down regarding top trade candidate Dylan Cease has remained unresolved.

The question marks around Cease have waxed and waned over the course of the offseason. Clearly, when Morosi believed Cease was about to be traded in late November, only to find us now in early January, whatever talks that had intensified either didn't take place at all or just fell through. The conversation around Cease has started and stopped over the past few months, with the White Sox not being as trigger-happy about trading away their top players as they suggested they were at the beginning of the offseason. In fact, they've added more than they've subtracted from their roster.

The silence that's formed around Cease could be bad news for the clubs still interested in his services, but a new report from Ken Rosenthal has renewed hopes for the Dodgers, who are allegedly still in the mix.

Dodgers’ rumored involvement in trade for star pitcher gaining steam

The Dodgers are still in add-mode on at least one other starting pitcher while they wait for Shohei Ohtani to be ready to pitch again and a host of other arms remain injured. Cease, who is still under team control for two years, was a logical solution from the start, despite experiencing a dip in performance in 2023 following his Cy Young-winning year. While Cease talks have stalled, the Dodgers have reportedly moved their interest to other trade candidates, but Cease still seems like the best fit and the most likely to actually be traded.

If the Dodgers do get him, he could be an extension candidate in the same way that Tyler Glasnow was, or he could just fill in for one of the rotation's absences before being traded again or hitting free agency. Either way, the Dodgers have seemingly little interest in Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery, so their best options remain in the trade market. Shane Bieber seems like a long shot, Corbin Burnes even more so, so if the Dodgers are going to steal a starter from a Midwestern team, their best bet is still Cease.