Scott Boras spells out Cubs’ need for Dylan Cease in blunt fashion

The holiday season must be upon us because Scott Boras has been hitting us with his Boras-isms left and right as he meets with front offices at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas. As is the case every year, the Chicago Cubs were a major topic - and, really, they should be as one of the league's most valuable franchises playing in a major media market.

Will this be the winter the team's spending aligns? Time will tell, but if you ask Boras, a reunion between the Cubs and former prospect Dylan Cease makes all the sense in the world.

“Well, I think we all know how Dylan Cease pitches in Wrigley Field,” Boras said. “He is dominant. And to have durability, to have dominance — he has got both. Other than [Tarik] Skubal next year, I don’t see a pitcher in the market coming that is going to have the potential that Cease has, and the proven element of durability to go along with that quality and potential. Two hundred strikeouts a year, it’s just not something the game has.”

Dylan Cease can deliver what the Cubs pitching staff badly needs

Cease has averaged 221 strikeouts per season dating back to the start of the 2021 campaign. During that time, no Cubs pitcher has come close to notching 200 punchouts, with the closest being Shota Imanaga's 174 Ks during his rookie campaign in 2024. The lack of swing-and-miss on the pitching staff, as a whole, is a major weakness of this team - and one the right-hander could help remedy.

Cubs starters ranked 24th in MLB this year with just 716 strikeouts in 855 2/3 innings of work. Come October, it was clear Chicago was at a disadvantage, forced to rely on Matthew Boyd, who pushed his workload higher than it had been in the better part of a decade, and Jameson Taillon and, while both held their own for the most part, Imanaga's ineffectiveness, paired with injuries to Cade Horton and Justin Steele had Craig Counsell piecing together every game.

As one of the top available free agent starters, Cease will draw widespread interest. The Houston Astros, who expressed interest in him ahead of the trade deadline, are viewed as frontrunners for his services - but if the Cubs set their sights on the 29-year-old, they have the financial flexibility to land pretty much any player they want. Whether or not they'll leverage that flexibility remains to be seen.

Scott Boras is right. Cease is a perfect fit for what the Cubs need atop the rotation. Bringing him in and pairing him with Steele, Horton, Boyd and Taillon would give Chicago its best rotation in years - and finally add the strikeout element the club has long sought.