From Seoul to LA, Cease's SD journey in focus

LOS ANGELES -- The Padres and Dodgers open their National League Division Series on Saturday night. Dylan Cease will be on the mound for San Diego in Game 1.

He wasn't on the mound in Seoul when these two teams opened the 2024 MLB season in March. But, well, Cease was there. And in his teammates' eyes, that was every bit as important.

The Padres traded for Cease in mid-March. They were boarding their bus to the airport when general manager A.J. Preller finalized the deal. They were on the tarmac when it went final.

Cease did not make the flight.

He reported to the team's Spring Training complex the next day and played catch. The Padres gave Cease an option: He could continue to throw in Arizona, then meet the Padres in San Diego after the Seoul Series. Or ...

He could board a commercial trans-Pacific flight, knowing he wouldn't pitch in either of the team's first two games. (Cease was lined up to start the White Sox opener two weeks later and wasn't built up.)

• Padres-Dodgers NL Division Series Game 1 FAQ

"Really, your actions speak louder than your words, right?" said Padres manager Mike Shildt. "People say, 'I want to be part of the team.' OK, do you want to fly 16 hours and acclimate? Or do you want to wait six days and allow yourself to just stay where you're at and get your work in?

"And that would have been fine. But ... he's like, ‘No, give me a flight.’ Got him a flight, and he showed up, and he's fit in since Day 1."

Indeed, Cease's transition has been seamless. To some extent, he felt more settled as a Padre than he had previously -- if only because it was clear he wasn't going to pitch for the White Sox in 2024.

"There were trade rumors every day," Cease said. "So I guess just being placed somewhere and having those behind me was nice."

Still, Cease was leaving one organization to join another group of teammates in a foreign country after a 16-hour flight.

There was no formal introduction. Cease just walked into the room where breakfast was being served, and he was suddenly a Padre.

"It was the hotel, just the team breakfast," Cease said. "And other than that, I think [I met the rest of my teammates] just being at the field."

The environment was a unique one. And in a way, that's what made it perfect.

"He didn't really have to go," said catcher Kyle Higashioka, who had never met Cease before catching his first Padres outing in an exhibition game in Seoul. "But just the fact that he did, and he made that choice and wanted to be with us, it tells you a lot about the guy."

At breakfast that morning, Cease sat with pitching coach Ruben Niebla, and they spoke for the first time.

"We didn't talk a lot about baseball, what he does on the field,” Niebla said. “That's well documented. I just wanted to make sure that I got to know him more on the personal side."

That relationship has blossomed. Cease has credited Niebla for helping him with the mechanical tweaks that led to his July no-hitter and a season (3.47 ERA, 224 strikeouts) in which he'll garner down-ballot Cy Young votes.

Cease's arrival was symbolic. The 2023-24 offseason was not kind to the Padres. They were coming off the disappointment of 2023, then shipped Juan Soto to the Yankees and lost a number of key pitchers in free agency.

But as a new season dawned, they’d landed one of the best arms in the sport.

"It helped us for team morale at that point, knowing that we had picked up an ace -- and that he was there with us," Niebla said. "Whether he was going to pitch in that series or not, it picked up our team."

How could it not? This was Dylan Cease, perennially capable of making 30-plus starts, striking out 200-plus hitters and generally dominating the opposition.

Cease was rumored to plenty of teams, but San Diego never seemed like a favorite. And suddenly the trade was final. Cease was a Padre.

"It just gives you that sense that everybody believes,” Higashioka said. “It feels great to have everyone pulling on the same side of the rope, knowing that the guys in the front office believe in you. We believe in ourselves, and we just got a whole lot better -- it's a great feeling."