White Sox: What Should We Make of Dylan Cease?
By Matt Manetti
The White Sox acquired Dylan Cease from the Cubs for Jose Quintana. The right hander is the fifth-best prospect in the farm system according to MLBPipeline.
We’ve heard all the usual names when talking about the Chicago White Sox farm system. The thought of Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech and Luis Robert contributing at the major league level is something that excites fans. Then we hear about Dane Dunning and Alec Hansen who could give the pitching staff depth. And then there’s Dylan Cease.
You may recall Dylan Cease was also part of the Jose Quintana trade along with Jimenez. Cease was arguably the best pitching prospect the Cubs had and adds to the stable of impressive arms Rick Hahn has put together. He’s yet another guy that could prove to be a frontline starter for this team.
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Still we don’t hear much about him. After the trade he made nine starts for Single-A Kannapolis where he was 0-8 with a 3.89 ERA. For South Bend [Cubs Single-A affiliate] he was 1-2 in 13 starts and had a 2.79 ERA. For 2017, his ERA was 3.28. That’s not bad.
Cease is another strong arm. He was the Cubs sixth round pick in 2014. He injured his shoulder and needed Tommy John surgery, otherwise he could have potentially be a first rounder.
Since coming back from the injury, his fastball has be in the mid to high 90s. And he hit triple digits last year. He has all the makings of a stud. The 21-year-old throws three pitches, a fastball, curveball and changeup. He had one of the best fastball/curveball combinations coming out of high school in 2014 but injuries hurt that. However, he seems to be back and strong. One area of concern, according to MLBPipeline, is control. Hopefully the White Sox coaching staff could help him with that. Otherwise he may not live up to his potential.
Cease isn’t talked about as much as his counterparts. But he’s another promising young arm the White Sox possess. Some felt the White Sox would be happiest they got him over Jimenez. While that doesn’t seem as likely now since Jimenez has dominated at every level of competition and this team already has a healthy stable of pitchers, Cease represents Rick Hahn’s commitment to building through the minors and the draft.
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His numbers at the minors aren’t the greatest but there’s more to it than that. He still had 126 strikeouts over 93.1 innings. The kid obviously has talent and hopefully he’ll unleash that talent very soon at Guaranteed Rate Field.