GLENDALE, Ariz. — After posting a 4.48 ERA in 15 starts at Class AAA Charlotte, Dylan Cease made 14 starts in his major league debut in 2019, pitching to a 5.79 ERA.
Those are numbers that aren’t sitting well with the 24-year-old White Sox right-hander. And they are numbers that will likely have to fit on a postseason-caliber starting rotation, which is what the Sox aspire to assemble. The ERA is one that should fall because of Cease’s electric stuff, lessons learned, adjustments and experience.
There are no guarantees, though, but Cease is doing what he should be doing to change it, tweaking a thing or two mechanically and is getting down to the business of seeing how those changes fly this spring.
“The biggest thing I’ve really been working on is not getting too rotational on my front side,” he said. “That’s the main thing that’s going to be different.”
So far, so good.
“I think that’s one of the big reasons I was having cutting issues with my fastball,” he said. “So right now, I haven’t been having any of those issues.”
With half a major league season under his belt, Cease has a new comfort level with being a big leaguer, “getting comfortable with the whole process, getting comfortable with the travel, with being up there.”
Cease came to the Sox with Eloy Jimenez in the 2017 Jose Quintana trade ranked as the Cubs’ top pitching prospect. Three years later, he’s viewed as a key piece of the Sox’ young core that presents a possible better future on the South Side.
“You can tell there’s a different feel [here],” Cease said. “This is definitely the most talented team I’ve been a part of.’’
With an upper 90s fastball and big curveball, Cease’s talent has never been an issue. He made his major league debut on July 3, and in 14 starts covering 73 innings, he averaged a shade above five innings per start and 97 pitches. He knows he needs to be more effective executing pitches to be a 200-inning pitcher.
“Just being efficient, not wasting pitches,” Cease said. “If you’re having 40-pitch innings, it’s hard to go more than five.”
Between Charlotte and Chicago, Cease pitched a career high 138-1/3 innings over 29 starts.
“Yeah, that’d be great [to reach 200],” Cease said. “I don’t know what my limit’s going to be, but I want to throw as many as I can.”
Innings one (9.00 ERA) and two (9.64) were the obvious stumbling blocks for Cease, who seemed to adjust as he went along, pitching to ERAs of 3.46 in the third inning, 2.92 in the fourth and 2.25 in the fifth.
It was a mix of good and bad, but enough good – including an 11-strikeout performance at Cleveland on Sept. 3 and eight-strikeout, one-run final outing at Detroit on Sept. 20 – that he holds onto.
“The fact that I’ve gone out there and I’ve had games where I was able to do really well, had wins and all that, it just shows I can do it,” he said. “The biggest thing is just the confidence booster.”
