Chicago Cubs fans reminded of first Dylan Cease trade after latest MLB Blockbuster

The infamous Chicago Cubs trade with the Chicago White Sox in 2017 has found renewed life this week across Major League Baseball.

It was a highly-scrutinized deal that saw the Cubs deal away, arguably, their top pitching prospect, Dylan Cease, and their top position prospect, Eloy Jimenez, for White Sox starting pitcher Jose Quintana.

The Cubs hoped that Quintana's success in the American League with the White Sox would translate to him becoming the answer at the top of the team's rotation. Quintana posted a 4.24 ERA across four seasons with the Cubs, while Cease and Jimenez appeared to be the core of a White Sox team that was set to contend for the next decade.

Quintana is entering the 2024 season as the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Mets while Cease, after a failed White Sox rebuild, was the prized piece in the latest MLB blockbuster.

On Wednesday night, the White Sox dealt Cease to the San Diego Padres in exchange for RHP Drew Thorpe, outfielder Samuel Zavala, RHP Jairo Iriarte, and relief pitch Steven Wilson.

A Dylan Cease trade was never an option for the Chicago Cubs

To put it in Cubs' terms, the Padres offered the equivalent of Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, James Triantos, and a Caleb Kilian type.

Given the latest injury to Jameson Taillon and the lack of firepower at the top of the rotation, the easy conclusion would be that the Cubs should have been involved in the sweepstakes for Cease.

The problem is the Cubs do not want to make the same mistake that they made in 2017. Given the fact that the Cubs are not going to spend in free agency for top-of-the-rotation arms, the team is reliant on Wicks and Brown to be two pivotal pieces of the starting rotation in the long term. For as much as Cease would address a need for the Cubs, it was not a trade the Cubs were going to make given their comfort with the outlook of their pitching prospects.

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