GLENDALE, Ariz. — White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease is accustomed to having the bar raised high for who he can be.
Catcher Yasmani Grandal raised it another notch Thursday when he said Cease has the ability to be a Cy Young finalist — or more.
No pressure, Mr. 25-year-old with 26 major league starts and a 5.00 ERA on your resume.
“It’s as big a compliment as you can get from somebody,” Cease said of Grandal’s comments, of which Cease was made aware via a text message from his father.
As low key as them come, Cease seemed to take it in stride.
“I’m not putting any extra pressure on myself,” he said. “I know what the expectations are.”
The expectation last season was that Cease would be good enough to take the ball in Game 3 of the Sox’ Wild Card series against the Athletics last October, but the command of his four-seam fastball that averaged 97 mph escaped him. He walked 34 batters in 58 1/3 innings, including 14 and 12 1⁄3 innings over his last three starts, none of which reached five innings.
Cease finished with a 4.01 ERA but wasn’t getting as many strikeouts as his velocity, spin rate and exceptionally sharp breaking pitches seemingly should have produced. He couldn’t be trusted in Game 3, and rookie Dane Dunning was given the nod to start. Dunning was giving a quick hook on what was an excruciating bullpen day for the Sox, who used nine pitchers who walked nine batters and lost 6-4 to end their season.
“It was one of those where I understood it,” Cease said of not getting the ball. “I didn’t really earn a spot there. It is what it is, and all I could do was go into the offseason, talk to [new Sox pitching coach] Ethan [Katz] and figure out what needs to be changed.”
In the offseason, Cease went to work with Katz, who got Cease to use a core velocity belt — also used by Lucas Giolito — to help him stay closed in his delivery. Katz’ drills are helping, Cease said.
“I think the biggest thing is just command, especially the fastball,” Cease said. “We’ve worked on not only getting it to carry and ride better, but the second part of the equation is being able to command it. Just commanding, basically.”
So far, so good. Grandal watched Cease throwing off a mound weeks before spring training began and couldn’t help but text Katz with excitement.
“I feel like if we get him to where we see him going, this guy could be a Cy Young finalist. He could possibly be a Cy Young winner,” Grandal said Thursday. “He’s got the tools to do it, there’s no doubt on that. Now it just comes down to the process and making sure he gets to do and sees the vision that we have for him, and the future is only going to dictate whether we can get him to be what we want him to be or not.”
The Sox traded for Lance Lynn in the offseason and now have three actual Cy Young candidates — Dallas Keuchel finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting last season, Lynn was sixth and Giolito seventh. This allows Cease to slide into the No. 4 spot in the rotation, perhaps a perfect fit for a high ceiling guy who doesn’t have to carry the rotation, and yet somewhat risky for a team relying on unproven talent to deliver it toward said World Series aspirations.
“Some guys take six, seven years to develop and then become the guy that everybody saw at the beginning of their career,” Grandal said. “Cease, at this point, just with his repertoire and what he’s got, he’s able to survive in the big leagues without a doubt. He has the swing and miss, he has the pitch capability, now it’s just a matter of narrowing down and making him more into a pitcher than a thrower.”
The Sox are banking on Katz to pull that out of him.
“He’s really connected with Ethan and he’s definitely making progress,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He’s the kind of guy, you can’t wait for his next time out there, which is Saturday.”
