GLENDALE, Ariz. — Count pitching coach Don Cooper among those more than ready to move past the rebuild. Cooper, his White Sox starting rotation beefed up by free-agent left-handers Dallas Keuchel and Gio Gonzalez during the offseason, is ready to win.
“The playing field has been leveled,” Cooper said, citing the acquisitions of those two veterans and right-handed reliever Steve Cishek, and on the offensive side Yasmani Grandal and Edwin Encarnacion. “It hasn’t been level for a long while. So yeah, I’m looking forward to this season. We’ve got a chance to win more ballgames and I’m hoping the ball bounces our way and somehow, some way, we’re winning the [AL Central] division.”
The Sox lineup should slug and score enough runs to make that possible. The pitching staff is a bigger question mark, with two-fifths of the starting rotation – Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease – coming off unsatisfactory seasons. Lopez, 26, in his second year as a starter, saw his ERA fall from 3.91 in 2018 to 5.38. Cease, 24, posted a 5.79 ERA after getting his first major league promotion in July.
Lopez and Cease, who will follow probable Opening Day starter Lucas Giolito and 2015 Cy Young winner Keuchel in the rotation, are the keys.
“Lopez has to be more consistent,” Cooper said.
As does Cease, searching for command of his quality four-pitch mix and looking to avoid those 100-pitch counts in five innings.
Early on this spring, Cooper likes what he has seen from both of them.
“I’m already seeing [more consistency] from Lopez,” he said. “And Cease is on the glove a lot more. He’s throwing more strikes. Both of those guys are in the best position I’ve seen them in.”
Most of it has been done in bullpen sessions and live batting practice, although Cease pitched two scoreless Cactus League innings against the Reds. Lopez had his scheduled start of the spring opener rained out. Keuchel made his first start Monday, Lopez starts Tuesday and Cease Wednesday as the starters get rolling toward Opening Day March 26.
Cease has made “a huge improvement on the things we were asking his to do with his delivery, his grip, his axis” and curtailing the cut on his fastball, Cooper said. “Those things are much, much better,” Cooper said. “Lopez’ problem last year was lack of command of fastball. Like if he wanted a fastball in, sonofab----, it slid back out over and they got him. He made too many mistakes with his fastball.”
So far, the command has been sharper.
“I see him throwing his slider harder. I see the changeup good — down, getting more swings and misses,” Cooper said. “He’s behind the ball, his axis is better and therefore his command has been a little bit better. So I like where he’s at.”
Cease looks around and sees a rotation that could impress. But he knows looks only go so far.
”So far everyone has looked good,” Cease said. “Whether it translates, you can’t predict it.”
The adjustments he made, however, leave him “as confident as a pitcher as I’ve felt in a long time.” Lopez is also oozing confidence.
“I feel great,” Cease said. “I definitely have better command with my fastball right now. It’s not cutting [out of the strike zone]. It’s staying true now. And I have a better feel.”
Physically, everything “feels fantastic. I’m feeling optimistic.”
And don’t forget, Cooper said, that reinforcements will be coming soon.
“I don’t know exactly when but it will be coming,” Cooper said. “Michael Kopech will be in Chicago and Carlos Rodon will be in Chicago.”
Those two will be recovered from Tommy John surgeries and ready to pitch, Kopech perhaps by May and Rodon maybe in July. Where they will fit in, and who would get pushed out will play itself out.
What’s more, prospects Dane Dunning, Jimmy Lambert and Ryan Burr “are right behind them,” Cooper said.
“So it’s forming,” he said.
