Dylan Cease Trade Created Awkward Moment for Traded Padres Pitcher About to Leave to Korea

Trades usually create awkward moments. This one was as awkward as it gets.

If the San Diego Padres had waited any longer to trade for Dylan Cease, they may have had to turn a plane around.

When word came out on Wednesday night that the Padres were acquiring the right-handed ace from the Chicago White Sox, the Padres players and their significant others were getting set to board a bus that would take them to the airport to fly to Korea.

Among those Padres players was Steven Wilson, the right-handed reliever who was the lone big-leaguer sent to Chicago in the trade.

Wilson was with his girlfriend at a picnic table with Michael King, Joe Musgrove and others when he got a phone call. After taking the call, he got his car and starting packing up his things.

Wilson went from the excitement of a trip to Korea with his teammates to being traded to an American League team entering a rebuild. Quite the 180.

As he was packing his things, his teammates came over to say their goodbyes.

"Jackson Merrill stood up to hug Wilson on one trip. Trevor Hoffman, in jeans and flip-flops for the coming flight, bear-hugged him on another. (Michael) King and catcher Kyle Higashioka got in their goodbyes. Wilson was red-eyed by the time he extended a handshake to a reporter still on-site."

— v

ia the San Diego Union-Tribune

The Padres had a clear hole in their rotation entering the 2024 season, and it made sense to fill it with a player who had a 2.20 ERA in 32 starts in 2022.

Cease is also due just $8 million this year and is under team control for 2025. He fit perfectly with the Padres' desires to cut salary.

And yet, the timing of the trade made for a very difficult moment for Wilson and his teammates.

They went from the highs of getting set for a trip to Korea to the lows of realizing one of their friends wouldn't be joining them.

Wilson had been one of the better relievers in the Padres' bullpen over the last two years, sporting a 3.48 ERA over 102 total appearances in 2022 and 2023.

He was the only big leaguer sent to the White Sox, joining top prospects Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte and Samuel Zavala.

Wilson will now head over to Camelback Ranch to join the White Sox, and will prepare for a normal Opening Day on March 28.

If he wants to watch his former teammates when they take on the Dodgers in Korea, he'll have to wake up at 3:05 a.m.