MLB Insider Thinks Orioles Should Trade for White Sox Star

USA TODAY national baseball writer Bob Nightengale expects the Baltimore Orioles to be active and aggressive this offseason. He thinks they should pursue this star pitcher.

In hopes of bettering their chances of winning in October, last summer the Baltimore Orioles traded three prospects to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.

The Orioles had hoped that a change of scenery might resurrect Flaherty, returning him to the budding star he was in 2019 when he finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting.

Instead, Flaherty struggled immensely, logging a 6.75 ERA over nine appearances and 34.2 IP with Baltimore. Despite finishing with the best record in the American League, the Orioles were swept out of the American League Division Series.

The Flaherty experiment failed.

With Kyle Gibson departing in free agency, inking a one-year deal with the Cardinals, Baltimore is in need of starting pitching. They are especially in need of a top of the rotation starter.

Longtime national baseball writer for USA TODAY, Bob Nightengale, has an idea of who the Orioles should be targeting to fill that void.

Nightengale recently visited the Jack Vita Show, where he pitched a potential trade target for Baltimore.

"If I’m them, I’m all over Dylan Cease," Nightengale said. "Remember now, their GM used to be the assistant GM under Jeff Luhnow in Houston, and that’s what Luhnow did. He had the great, young prospects and he went out and traded for Verlander. He went out and traded for Gerrit Cole. And that’s what you need to do, and I think they’ll follow the same blueprint.”

The Orioles have MLB Pipeline's top-ranked farm system, filled to the brim with promising young position players. Nightengale is confident Cease will be moved this winter, and he thinks the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore could be a perfect match, as it relates to trade partners.

“I think they’ll move him," Nightengale said. "I really do. Everybody’s just starving for starting pitchers. They’ve got a hot commodity. You’re not going to get anymore for him later on than you will now, so I think they move him. The Dodgers have been involved, Atlanta’s been involved, I would think Baltimore will jump in; they need him. And you get two years of him, not just one year. And I think [the White Sox] kind of want to remake that whole roster.”

Cease placed second in AL Cy Young Award voting in 2022, posting a 2.20 ERA and 1.109 WHIP across 184 innings pitched. The White Sox ace took a step backwards in 2023, logging a 4.58 ERA and 1.418 WHIP over 177 IP.

He is under club control for the next two seasons.

Nightengale expects the Orioles to be active and aggressive this winter.

“I think they’ll be aggressive because they have no choice," Nightengale said. "They just won the division. They’ve got the best young, raw talent in the American League East. There’s no reason they can’t put a stranglehold on this division for the next four or five years, but they need some frontline pitching to do so."

You can catch the full conversation with Bob Nightengale on the Jack Vita Show here:

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