I've read this quite a few times: https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-dodgers-deal-deferrals-explained
New CBA needs to limit the percentage of a contract that can be deferred, amongst other things.
The potential upside of Barger's bat outweighs benefits that could be had by trading him for a reliever IMO. Now is not the right time to be trading a young/controllable position player asset with flashes of "move-the-needle" talent like him.
Can you breakdown FIP by inning? Obviously you would expect an increase deeper into the ballgame, but a couple of Padres fans I've been talking to say it is disproportionately true with Cease.
One thing going under the radar here for Cease is that he going from below average framing (SD) to one of the best in all of MLB in Kirk. Obviously the ABS system will devalue it a bit, but you can’t challenge every call.