Since New York Yankees 2023 Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole revealed earlier this week that he would undergo Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, ending his season, the Yankees have been swamped with trade ideas to fill in for their absent ace. But what would be the price?
To obtain any pitcher even close to Cole’s level, New York will inevitably be forced to part with a player, probably a young player, that the team would rather not lose. At the top of the list as far as Yankees trade targets go, one name keeps popping up: San Diego Padres workhorse righty Dylan Cease.
The 29-year-old, who was traded to the Friars before the 2024 season after five years with the Chicago White Sox, was named as the No. 1 candidate to join the Yankees by Deesha Thosar of FOX Sports on Thursday.
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“The Padres want to compete this year, but if they’re sellers by the trade deadline, Cease will have several suitors, and the Yankees should be one of them,” Thosar wrote.
But can the Yankees afford to wait until the trade deadline to replace Cole in their rotation?
Jon Heyman of the New York Post also listed Cease — who is owed $13.75 million in 2025 under a one-year contract he signed with the Padres — as the leading candidate for a Yankees trade. But Heyman also stated what acquiring the durable Cease — who has started at least 32 games in each of the last for season, leading the league in starts three times — would mean in terms of what New York would need to give up.
The Padres would be “unlikely” to let Cease go without a substantial return, Heyman wrote.
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“Unless the Yankees want to offer starting catcher Austin Wells, starting shortstop Anthony Volpe or struggling-in-spring starting outfielder Jasson Domínguez,” Heyman wrote in his Post column Thursday, “it’s hard to see how it works.”
Even one of those players, each key to the Yankees’ plans this season as they hope for a second straight trip to the World Series, would be a high price in exchange for a pitcher who will be a free agent after the 2025 campaign.
Wells, 25, is entering his second full season and was third in Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. Volpe, who is just 23, is seen as the Yankees’ first worthy successor at shortstop to Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who retired 11 years ago.
And the 22-year-old Domínguez, despite his struggles in left field, is still ranked as the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect and is a leading Rookie of the Year contender this season.
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But the Yankees would be receiving a pitcher who reliably turns up for every start, strikes out 10.8 batters per nine innings over his career, and posted a 1.067 WHIP in 2024, fourth in the National League.
The question the Yankees need to ask is whether dealing away one of their top young stars — who could help the team contend for years — is worth it, for a pitcher who gives them a shot an another American League East pennant and possible World Series run.
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