This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- I want to thank manager Pedro Grifol for putting a late January end to a time-honored but often annoying Spring Training tradition by announcing Dylan Cease as the 2024 White Sox Opening Day starter Thursday. 

Here’s how this scenario usually unfolds.

Approximately three or four weeks into Cactus League action, reporters start asking the manager about his thoughts on the Opening Day mound selection. There’s some misdirection from the manager, before falling upon, “We haven’t quite decided.”

These decisions are primarily made before Spring Training begins, so pitching coaches can line up their rotations and workload in Arizona or Florida. The Opening Day choice is usually fairly obvious, as is this case for Cease.

Cease struck out 10 over 6 1/3 innings during a 3-2 victory at Houston, as the 2022 American League Cy Young runner-up topped the World Series champs on Opening Day ‘23. I kid you not when saying this victory was one of the highlights of a 61-win White Sox season.

So, the honor belongs to Cease for the second straight time … unless the White Sox move him. Chicago has two years of control remaining with the 28-year-old right-hander, who has been one of the top starters in the game and one of the most durable over the last three seasons.

His sort of talent helps any team, including the White Sox, as I’ve written many times before. Cease also figures to be the top trade return for a team going through a retooling process, meaning trade rumors featuring his name might continue up until he throws that first pitch of 2024 against the Tigers at home on March 28.

Hearing your name constantly connected with the Orioles, the Dodgers, the Yankees, etc. in trade rumors could be tough for some players. Grifol doesn’t think it has affected Cease.

“His personality, he’s unfazed by this,” said Grifol during a White Sox community outreach event with the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago at a location near Guaranteed Rate Field. “I talked to him yesterday, and we talked about him Opening Day. He’s preparing himself for that, and he feels great.

“He’s throwing ‘pens, he doesn’t have any soreness, he’s excited about this club. He’s excited about the guys we’ve acquired, excited about our catching. … If [a trade] happens, he understands the business, but like I told him and he told me, right now he’s our Opening Day starter and [he’s getting] ready.”

Even if trade talks are dormant on Friday, by the following Monday, a player could be making travel plans. So, Cease still might wind up somewhere else if Chicago’s high ask is met and it helps the team overall.

“We have to do what’s best for the organization, not just [in] ‘24 but ‘25 and beyond,” Grifol said. “He has the right mentality for it.

“Trades are hard to pull off. Everybody has to be comfortable with those. We’ll see what happens, but right now he’s our Opening Day starter, and I’m happy about that.”

What happens on Opening Day if Cease actually gets traded? Candidates such as Michael Kopech, Michael Soroka and Erick Fedde could step up, depending on the trade return for Cease. For the fourth or fifth time in my 22 seasons on the beat, there would be some real doubt behind that Opening Day question.