(Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

Many think the San Diego Padres will make big trades before the MLB trading deadline on Thursday.

One of those moves could involve starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who could conceivably make his last start for the team Monday night when they open a three-game series with the visiting New York Mets.

Cease (3-10, 4.59 ERA) had a much better 2024 season, going 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA, no-hitting Washington that July and fanning 224 hitters in 189 1/3 innings. This year has not gone nearly as well, as the right-hander has thrown home run balls at inopportune times.

But the power pitcher hasn't given much thought to potential new destinations, only to figuring out why he's not getting the results he and the team want.

'Just focused on executing here, you know? I don't think I've executed exceptionally well,' Cease told the San Diego Union-Tribune. 'It's like some good, some bad. I still haven't pitched great, to be honest.'

Cease's last start, a 3-2 loss Wednesday in Miami, was on brand for his season. He fanned five over five innings, giving him 144 in only 113 2/3 innings, and yielded three runs (two earned runs) on four hits and three walks. But one of those hits was a two-run homer by Jesus Sanchez that decided the game.

In three career starts against New York, Cease is 0-3 with a 6.88 ERA in 17 innings, including a loss last year at Citi Field.

The Padres finished a 5-5 road trip Sunday with a 9-2 win in St. Louis, mashing 16 hits and scoring their most runs since an 11-run explosion June 10 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They enter play Monday with a one-game lead on Cincinnati for the NL's last wild-card spot.

'It's going to be nice to sleep in our own beds,' said second baseman Jake Cronenworth.

The Mets will sleep in unfamiliar beds again for this series but will do so after a 5-3 win on Sunday at San Francisco polished off a series sweep that upped their NL East lead on Philadelphia to 1 1/2 games. They have won seven straight after starting the second half 0-2.

They'll give the ball to Frankie Montas (3-1, 4.62) for the series opener. He's coming off a 3-2 home win on Tuesday over the Los Angeles Angels in which he worked 5 2/3 innings, permitting two runs off eight hits and two walks while whiffing six.

Montas is 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in 18 2/3 innings over three career outings against San Diego.

While the Padres have yet to make a trade prior to the deadline, New York added to its roster on Friday by acquiring lefty reliever Gregory Soto from Baltimore. Soto made a positive first impression on Sunday with a 1-2-3 seventh inning that included a strikeout.

Soto, who pitched to a 3.96 ERA with an 0-2 mark and one save in 45 appearances with the Orioles, was excited to join a team with World Series ambitions.

'We all read the news and we knew the Mets were looking for a left-handed reliever,' he said to SNY after arriving in San Francisco on Saturday night. 'This is a team that wants to win and I want to win a championship, so that's why I want to be here.'

New York won five of seven matchups from San Diego last year, splitting four games in August at Petco Park.

--Field Level Media