Chicago White Sox Rumors: Atlanta Braves talking Dylan Cease trade

The Major League Baseball Winter Meetings are next week with the Chicago White Sox likely being in the middle of the trade activity.

White Sox starting pitcher Dylan Cease remains one of the top available starting pitchers on the trade market. There is a growing expectation that Cease will be traded by the White Sox before the start of the 2024 season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have already been identified as a team that has had trade discussions with the White Sox regarding Cease. Another team that is expressing interest in Cease is a team with which the White Sox have already completed a trade with earlier this off-season.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Atlanta Braves have expressed an interest in trading for Cease.

Earlier this month, the White Sox relief pitcher Aaron Bummer to the Braves for five players including starting pitcher Mike Soroka and infielder Nicky Lopez. The concern for the White Sox is of the five players that were acquired from the Braves in the Bummer trade, three of them likely were going to be non-tendered by the team.

The package that the White Sox acquired from the Braves earlier this month did not have any blue-chip talent. Sure, there is a chance that Soroka could turn into a mainstay in the White Sox’s rotation but that largely will be dependent on the White Sox’s ability to get his career back on track.

Lottery tickets such as the ones that the White Sox received for Bummer will not be an acceptable package for Cease. Trading Cease is meant to serve as a way for the White Sox to ignite their rebuild by adding blue-chip talent to their farm system. Anything less than that would result in a disappointing trade for the White Sox.