Padres' Dylan Cease Linked to 6 Teams as Free Agency Nears

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease (84) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Sept. 13. | David Frerker-Imagn Images

San Diego Padres pitcher Dylan Cease turns 30 in December. He just started his 30th game of the 2025 season, making this the fifth consecutive season he's started at least 30 games. Only two other pitchers have reached the 30-start mark every season since the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, and neither Jose Berríos or Kevin Gausman is eligible for free agency after this season.

Cease will be a free agent this winter, which makes the timing of his first foray into free agency excellent. Between his age and his durability, teams might have an easier time overlooking his otherwise pedestrian numbers: a 4.59 ERA (94 ERA+), 1.325 WHIP, and only eight wins.

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Jon Heyman of the New York Post included Cease in his list of the Top 25 pending free agents, along with a number of teams that could bid for his services: the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, and Baltimore Orioles.

Notably absent from that list: the Padres, who also face the loss of another starting pitcher, Nestor Cortes, in free agency after this season.

The Friars have four other starters — Yu Darvish, Nick Pivetta, Randy Vasquez and JP Sears — under contract or team control for next season.

Joe Musgrove and Jhony Brito are both expected to return from Tommy John surgery rehabilitation in 2026, but both figure to be limited after not pitching competitively in 2025.

None of the aforementioned pitchers have Cease's durability; Darvish did earlier in his career, but he'll turn 40 next season.

One could make the argument that losing Cease would leave the Padres' rotation depth on shaky ground. One could also argue that he isn't worth the $158 million he's projected to get on the open market by Spotrac.

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Such an investment would be the largest the Padres have ever made in a starting pitcher. Other teams on Heyman's list — notably the Orioles and Braves — have even less depth in their rotations, making them perhaps more motivated to outlast the others if a bidding war emerges for Cease.

Despite his underwhelming surface stats, Cease's underlying numbers suggest the bidding war is a question of "when," not "if."

As Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors noted recently, Cease's average fastball velocity (97.0) is his highest since 2020.

"He may only have average command (perhaps a slight bit below), but Cease is a durable flamethrower who misses bats with the best in the league," Adams wrote on Aug. 8. "He’s punched out 30.6% of his opponents. Metrics like FIP (3.52) and SIERA (3.33) feel he’s as good as — if not better than — he’s ever been."

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