What's the White Sox 'threshold' for moving Cease?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The questions of when and where the White Sox trade Dylan Cease have moved front and center for the team during the 2023 Winter Meetings.

But the question of if the right-handed ace is dealt also has to be included in this equation.

“There’s certainly no urgency to move Dylan Cease,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said during his Monday media session. “We’re talking about one of the best pitchers in baseball.

“There’s a responsibility for your organization, for the Chicago White Sox, to do what’s best for them. But Dylan’s a star in our game. There’s no real reason to come here and expect us to move Dylan Cease, but if a team brings something that meets a threshold that we feel we’ve just gotten a lot better, then we’re going to do that.”

So, how would Getz describe this magical threshold?

Getz made clear Monday how the White Sox are “obsessed” with bettering this club coming off the 61-101 disappointment of 2023. That improvement can come from acquiring players geared more for the future, geared more for present day assistance or, ideally, a full-return combination of both.

Then again, a player of Cease’s ilk, who has taken the ball every fifth day for parts of five seasons with the White Sox and made 97 starts combined over the past three, clearly can help a Chicago crew that has only two or three set rotation members at this point. It’s a balance of improving the team vs. not simply giving away a 27-year-old with one of the game’s most devastating sliders and two years of contractual control.

? With Cease in demand, how will the White Sox proceed?

“We're in a great spot. We have some players that are really talented, and we're not going to just move them to move them. It has to make sense,” manager Pedro Grifol said during his session Monday. “These guys have proven it at the Major League level, and if it makes sense for us, I think Chris and his staff will pull the trigger. If it doesn't, then we'll wait for the right time.”

“It certainly falls into the model of wanting to improve not only now but for the future,” Getz said. “And when you have certain players like we do, perhaps there’s an opportunity to capture that. … We’ve got a duty to improve our club. Obviously, we’ve struggled here, and expectations need to be higher. So we’re going to continue to work at it.”

As of late Monday evening, Getz’s conversations with other teams were pretty equal concerning trades and free agents, with a focus on the latter. He mentioned nothing was close but quickly added that things can change in a minute or two at the Winter Meetings.

That change could have something to do with Cease, who was the 2022 American League Cy Young runner-up.

“With Dylan Cease, there’s not a club that [doesn’t] have a level of interest,” Getz said. “But there’s a pace to these things. I’ll continue to take the calls and certainly compare different opportunities for perhaps getting better. The starting pitching market is always an area in which teams are looking to dive into to improve their club, and Dylan’s right at the top.”

“These guys are White Sox right now, and they're talented,” Grifol said. “Our job -- my job and our staff's job -- is to get that talent to perform on the field and execute.”

Cease’s market should come into sharper focus as the big-name, big-money free agent pitchers pick their teams. He also isn’t the only player who could depart the White Sox during Getz’s retooling process, as the general manager has said a few times there are no untouchables.

No untouchables, but All-Star center fielder Luis Robert Jr. is as close as it gets as Getz explained. Some team might make Getz the ultimate offer for the Silver Slugger with 38 home runs and 36 doubles last season. But if a team is obsessed with getting better, Robert makes great sense at its forefront.

“Luis Robert is a very difficult player to move and expect that your club is going to get better because of it,” Getz said. “We’re talking about one of the best players in baseball, and we’re very fortunate to have him with the Chicago White Sox. So I have a tough time seeing him wearing another uniform next year.”