Dylan Cease starts Padres career with back-to-back Ks in Seoul

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease runs a drill during a workout at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Dylan Cease combined two Ks and a fly out in his trip to the mound with the San Diego Padres, starting against the LG Twins just days after his sudden transfer and a mammoth sprint across the world to catch up with the rest of his new team.

Cease signed with the Padres on Wednesday last week, landing on the San Diego books just as the rest of the team prepared to taxi to the runway for a charter flight to Seoul.

Unable to make that flight — and unable to find his passport until the following morning, according to MLB.com — Cease began his own journey from Arizona to Seoul via Los Angeles, packing up his temporary home at the same time as it will be straight from Seoul to San Diego.

Cease, a right-handed pitcher, was traded from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Steven Wilson, Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte, and Samuel Zavala.

The new pitcher eventually made it to Seoul, although during pressers on Saturday some of his new teammates admitted they had not actually seen him yet. He had the rest of Saturday and Sunday to get acquainted, before taking to the mound to start the Padres’ exhibition game against the Twins.

That game, still in the second inning as of press time, if the final exhibition game before the 2024 MLB Seoul Series, the official start to the 2024 MLB season, pitting the Padres against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]