The Boston Red Sox made a push to acquire another frontline starter to complement left-handed ace Garrett Crochet at this season’s trade deadline, but their attempt to land Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May ultimately fell short of expectations.
Reports indicated that Boston was aggressively pursuing top-tier pitching help and was linked to trade discussions involving Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Ryan, though no deal materialized. Looking ahead, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has made it clear that adding a No. 2 starter is a top offseason priority. According to Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller, the Red Sox are projected to sign San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease to a six-year, $168 million contract in free agency.
“Teams searching for ‘never misses a start’ durability atop their rotation ought to look no further than Dylan Cease, who hasn’t missed a turn through the rotation since the final week of the 2019 campaign,” Miller wrote Sunday. “His 174 starts since the beginning of 2020 is the highest mark in the majors, four ahead of José Berríos in second place.
“The fact that it often takes Cease more than 90 pitches to make it through five innings of otherwise solid work isn’t likely to scare anyone away here, either — especially if it’s a team like Boston or San Francisco that already has an ace who frequently goes seven innings. Prediction: Six years, $168M with Boston Red Sox.”
Dylan Cease has established himself as one of baseball’s most reliable and durable starting pitchers. As Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller noted, the 29-year-old leads all pitchers in starts since 2020. While Garrett Crochet topped both the Red Sox and the majors with 255 strikeouts this season, Cease surpassed the 200-strikeout mark for the fifth consecutive year.
Cease is expected to be one of the most sought-after arms on the free-agent market this offseason. If he were to join Boston, he’d step into a franchise trending upward. The key question is whether the Red Sox will commit to a massive contract to land him, or instead explore the trade market for another frontline starter before next season.
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