Dylan Cease trade grades: Who won the Padres and White Sox deal?

After trading star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees and probably letting pitcher Blake Snell walk as a free agent, the Padres needed to do something splashy like this to try and keep pace with a gauntlet of a National League.

Being in the NL West is just tough business right now with the World Series favorites in the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that almost won a World Series in the Arizona Diamondbacks, a solid San Francisco Giants team and a rising Colorado Rockies team. Getting Cease has to give San Diego more hope that it can contend right now.

Losing that much from your pipeline is never fun, particularly parting ways with a promising young arm in Thorpe. However, pairing Cease with a starting rotation that also features Yu Darvish, Matt Waldron, Michael King and Joe Musgrave is good enough for San Diego to hold its own this year. It’s a necessary move for the Padres, even if it was a bit costly.

Trade Grade: A-