‘Exciting and hectic’: Dylan Cease plays catch-up in Peoria, prepares to join Padres in South Korea

As Joe Musgrove walked off the mound on Wednesday afternoon, his plan for the long flight to Seoul, South Korea, was near top of mind.

Sleeping. Reading. Watching an Oscar-nominated movie playlist, starting with “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Dylan Cease, however, is completely unprepared for the transpacific flight that’s been wedged into his spring schedule.

“I’m not really looking forward to it, to be honest,” Cease told the Union-Tribune with a laugh after throwing on the field at the Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday. “Fourteen hours, that’s a slugfest. I hope they have movies on the plane. I don’t have anything ready.”

And yet off he goes, from Phoenix to Los Angeles to catch his flight to Seoul.

Thursday’s touch-and-go throwing session and ensuing lifting and treatment session served as a pit stop and an opportunity for his new organization to begin downloading all they need to know about Cease’s preparation and routines. The Padres don’t need Cease to start either game in South Korea, but every minute spent with new pitching coach Ruben Niebla can be put to good use, as can the time spent in and around an organization that is completely foreign to the Milton, Ga., native.

Cease said he had not played with any of his new teammates. What he knows of the Padres is limited to giving up four runs over five innings in his last start of the season in 2022 — and the headlines that President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller continues to make.

“It’s hard to argue that the Padres haven’t (had a) 110-percent effort to try to build a team that’s a championship-level team,” Cease said. “And to me, that’s really exciting, to show the willingness to go all out and to think big and take bold action.”

Cease is the latest entry in Preller’s catalog of moves, with the trade arriving as the Padres cross the Pacific Ocean. The move shows baseball — and the rival Dodgers, next week’s opponents in the Seoul Series — that the Padres hope to contend in the NL West even as they cut payroll.

Good.

The sooner you get to measure up, Cease said, the better.

“Realistically, if you want to win, you’re going to have to face the best at some point,” he said. “So you can either shy away from it or you can go out and give what you have and embrace the challenge. Obviously, the (Dodgers) are obviously very talented, but the Padres … “

Cease stopped himself momentarily: “We, sorry, have a ton of talent here too. So I think there’s going to be a lot of fun battles.”

The 28-year-old right-hander is trending toward becoming a real weapon in that race. On Tuesday, Cease continued a dominant spring with eight strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball. His name had been rumored as a trade candidate all offseason as the White Sox prepared a rebuild and new General Manager Chris Getz phone him Wednesday afternoon that a deal was “pretty imminent.”

The follow-up call trailed news of the deal breaking on social media as the Padres prepared to board buses to take them to their charter flight to Seoul.

“Very, very interesting timing to say the least,” Cease said. “ … It was crazy because it was figuring out the logistics and the team going to Korea, and that added huge wrinkle. It was a hectic day to say the least — exciting and hectic.”

Add that to what had already been a productive spring as he looks to put 2023 behind him. Cease’s strikeout-to-walk ratio in the Cactus League was 14-to-2 over 8 1/3 innings (2.16 ERA), which is certainly a step in the right direction after his ERA ballooned from 2.20 as the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2022 to 4.58 last year.

“Last year wasn’t good,” Cease said. “I think I pitched to about 30 percent of my potential, really.”

He added: “I just wasn’t executing well. I didn’t get into a good rhythm. … I feel like I’m in a good spot right now. I feel like I’m locked in. I made some good adjustments. I mean, I’ve got a good feel right now. I’ve got a good command of everything.

“So honestly, just keep building on what I’ve been doing.”