White Sox: Can Dylan Cease repeat what he did in 2022?

Rick Hahn has mostly been a bad general manager during his tenure with the team. Almost all of his plans have failed up to this point. He doesn't deserve the blame for the Tony La Russa disaster but he didn't do anything to make the situation better than it was which was a shame.

However, one thing he did do right was somehow get the Chicago Cubs to include Dylan Cease in the package with Eloy Jimenez for Jose Quintana. That move is turning out to be one of the greatest trades in the history of the Chicago White Sox. It makes it even better that he fleeced the Cubs.

Cease was always a super-talented pitcher with a great arm but he needed to work on his command. It was obvious that he would become a superstar in the league if he was able to harness his stuff. In 2022, he was able to do that.

He finished second in the race for the American League Cy Young Award because of his dominance. Only a slightly better resurgent season from Justin Verlander (who is a Hall of Fame lock) kept Cease from winning the prestigious award.

Dylan Cease was marvelous for the Chicago White Sox in 2022.

His numbers speak for themselves. He was the only White Sox pitcher to make all 32 of his starts. In those starts, he had a 2.20 ERA, 1.109 WHIP, and 227 strikeouts over 184.0 innings pitched. It was a truly marvelous year.

Can he repeat the year he had in 2022 when we start the 2023 season? The answer to that question is yes. Cease is still only 27 years old and is just now entering his true prime as a pitcher. There is a lot of greatness yet to be unlocked with him.

The good thing is that there are still things for him to improve on. His WHIP was a little high because he had some issues with walks at the times. The good news for him in 2022 was that he was able to pitch around his walks most of the time which kept his ERA very low.

If he can improve on that and keep the rest of his numbers about the same, he should win at least one Cy Young in his career. He will almost certainly be the Opening Day starter in 2023 which is exciting. It is on him to lead this staff back to the playoffs as long as the offense can get going again as well.

The 2023 season should be excellent for Dylan Cease. He has all of the talent in the world and a big opportunity to take another step right here in front of him.