3 White Sox players that could break franchise contract record

Dylan Cease

Dylan Cease is going to make a lot of money in his Chicago White Sox career.

Dylan Cease will be a free agent in 2026. If he continues to blossom into the pitcher the White Sox think he can be then he could easily surpass Yasmani Grandal’s $73 million mark. Based on raw talent and potential, Cease may even be in line for a Max Scherzer-type deal down the road.

Cease has a ways to go before he gets to that point but he has been improving each season and shown glimpses of ace-type stuff.

His slider had the highest spin rate in baseball in 2021 and its horizontal break ranked in the top 28 percent in the league. He recorded 29 swinging strikes on May 27th which tied for the second-most in any game by a White Sox pitcher in the pitch-tracking era.

Cease also boasted an absurd whiff rate, getting a swing and miss on 32.3% of all his pitches. His 226 punchouts were a team-high and were the seventh most in the MLB.

His ERA has improved each season as well. In 2019 it was 5.79, in 2020 it was 4.01 and in 2021 he lowered it even further to 3.91. Opponents batting averages have gone down each year as well. In 2019 opponents were hitting .271 off of him. Now they are hitting just .223. At this rate, he is on track to be the new ace of the staff by 2024.

Cease needs to learn how to go deeper into games. However, he still complied 165.2 innings which was the second-most on the White Sox. He also led the club with 32 starts. Pitching is a hot commodity these days. If Cease can continue to improve he will be in line for a huge payday.