Oozing confidence, White Sox’ Dylan Cease is ready for his season to begin
White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease throws during an intrasquad baseball game at Guaranteed Rate Field. | Nam Y. Huh/AP
The right-hander’s eight-strikeout performance in an intrasquad game bodes well for White Sox’ 2020 rotation.
Andrew Vaughn, the No. 3 overall draft choice a year ago who has impressed with a polished, disciplined hitting approach, talked about the biggest difference between facing pitchers in high Class A and the major league pitching he is seeing in spring training and intrasquads this summer.
Command, Vaughn said, is the thing.
“Definitely have to be ready for [pitchers hitting corners],” Vaughn said this week. “They’re going to miss a quarter off the plate, they are good at hitting their spots. You go up looking to hit the pitch you want, then if you get two strikes you battle away.
“Not every pitcher is perfect. They’re going to miss and they might give you a pitch to hit or miss off the plate and give you a walk.”
Might, but not always, as Vaughn experienced facing right-hander Dylan Cease in an intrasquad game Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field. Cease, in an exceptionally promising outing that bodes well for the White Sox starting rotation, gave Vaughn and everyone else very little to hit. He struck out Vaughn on two tight, late-breaking sliders.
On Friday, he declared himself ready for the start of the season, which is one week away.
“I feel as confident as a player as I’ve ever been right now,” Cease said Friday.
“I don’t think you could draw it up any better.”
Cease had command to go with almost unhittable stuff.
“It was the best I’ve seen him,” said broadcaster and former Cy Young winner Steve Stone, who watched the performance on television.
“He located his fastball both up and down, the occasional change was was good and both breaking balls were exceptional,” Stone said. “No hitter could read the spin out of his hand leading to very bad swings.”
Cease struck out eight batters and walked one of 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball. In one stretch, he fanned James McCann, Vaugh, Danny Mendick, Yermin Mercedes and Luis Basabe in succession. After that, he got Adam Engel on a fly ball to right, then struck out Andrew Romine before calling it a night.
Cease’s stuff has never been an issue. He was the Cubs’ top pitching prospect when they packaged him with Eloy Jimenez in the trade for Jose Quintana three years ago, and he was named MLB Pipeline Pitcher of the Year in 2018.
In his first season in the majors last year, the stuff was evident — his fastball averaged 96.6 mph and he touched 100.1 to go with an assortment of sharp breaking balls, but the command inconsistent and the ERA came in at a hefty 5.79 over 14 starts.
His average of 9.99 strikeouts per nine innings was the highest by a rookie in franchise history. In many of his starts, one bad inning was his bugaboo.
There was no such thing Thursday night.
“I’m season ready right now,” he said.