It'd be a bit surprising to see the San Diego Padres not keep Dylan Cease around after not trading him at the deadline. There are a few different ways to look at it, and the most crucial part is that the Padres think they have a chance to win a World Series this year.
If they didn't, there wouldn’t have been a chance they traded the prospects they did over the last few days. The Padres improved as a team in 2025, but questions remain about their long-term future, particularly with players like Cease set to become free agents.
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It's also possible that Cease is just someone they view as an elite arm for the rest of the year and will allow him to walk, as the Padres have done in the past. Some believe that will be the case, including Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller, who made some very early free agency predictions for the 2025-26 offseason. He predicted that the Padres would lose Cease in a deal to the New York Mets during the winter.
“Each of these starting pitchers presently in his age-29 season finished top five in a Cy Young vote in two of the past three years and entered 2025 looking destined to become very rich upon reaching free agency for the first time,” he wrote.
“Instead, they've both struggled mightily and may at least be tempted to accept the one-year qualifying offers coming their way this winter in hopes of entering free agency more emphatically 15 months from now. (Prediction: Gallen stays in Arizona; Cease signs with New York Mets)”
The Mets have been linked to Cease multiple times over the past few years, and given everything the Mets have shown since, it's possible he could end up in Queens.
Their front office really values pitching, and David Stearns is arguably one of the best executives in baseball. They also have a great pitching lab, something that could entice them.