Amid delivering trademark metaphors on his clients who are free agents this winter, agent Scott Boras was asked Wednesday about one a few years away: Dylan Cease.
Cease switched his representation last offseason to Boras, the top-grossing agent in baseball, who has a track record of taking his top clients to free agency.
But that doesn’t mean Boras is set on taking the White Sox' Cy Young finalist to the open market as soon as he's eligible.
“I think with any young player that has showed elite, top-of-the-league level of performance, usually the teams — we just listen,” Boras said during a press conference at the GM Meetings Wednesday.
“We’re always open to what they have to say and how they look at it.”
Cease is arbitration eligible for the first time this winter and not eligible for free agency for three years.
But it’s not hard to look ahead after what he did this past season.
MLB
Cease, 27 in December, ascended to one of the American League's top starters in 2022. He was named a Cy Young Award finalist this week.
He made 32 starts, going 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA and 227 strikeouts in 184 innings.
The White Sox have had success locking up their homegrown players with extensions and reportedly had preliminary talks with Cease in spring training of his 2019 rookie season.
Their rotation picture beyond next season is cloudy. Along with Cease, Michael Kopech is under club control for three more seasons. But Lucas Giolito is set to become a free agent after 2023, while Lance Lynn has a club option for 2024.
As for Cease, Boras pointed out one of his other high-profile pitching clients, Stephen Strasburg, signed an extension that pushed back his first foray into the open market.
“We signed Stephen Strasburg before he was a free agent the first time," Boras said of the seven-year extension Strasburg signed with the Nationals in May 2016 that surprised a lot of the industry.
"So, our job is just listen, take it in, and then we transfer that to Dylan and see what he wants to do."
No pun needed.
Contributing from Las Vegas: Gordon Wittenmyer