‘Wasn’t enjoyable’: Dylan Cease, back in Chicago with Padres, reflects on final season of White Sox tenure
CHICAGO (AP) — Dylan Cease is back in Chicago this week. And he’s apparently much happier than the last time he was here.
Cease, who spent his first five major-league seasons with the White Sox after being drafted by the Cubs out of high school, said his final season with the South Siders “wasn’t enjoyable in really any way.” The ace right-hander had a tough year, and the team struggled.
He’s having a much better time with the San Diego Padres, his new team, which is visiting the North Side this week for a three-game series with the Cubs.
“It’s definitely really exciting coming to the ballpark,” Cease said. “Again with the Sox though, I mean, I really felt like we had that talent. We just didn’t put it together.”
Looking to unload big-league assets for prospects in a clear rebuilding phase, the White Sox traded Cease to the Padres during spring training for several prospects from the top end of San Diego’s farm system.
Cease was actually drafted by the Cubs, in the sixth round of the 2014 June Amateur Draft out of Milton (Ga.) High School.
The White Sox acquired Cease and slugger Eloy Jiménez as part of a blockbuster trade-deadline deal with the Cubs in July 2017 for veteran pitcher Jose Quintana. Cease and Jiménez became part of a promising young core on the South Side, but the team quickly fell apart after making the playoffs in 2020 and 2021.
Cease is scheduled to pitch Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Cubs.
“It’s always good to come back,” he said before San Diego’s 6-3 victory in the series opener on Monday night. “Obviously, I don’t have quite as much history with the Cubs, but I enjoy Wrigley. I enjoy Chicago.”
Justin Steele’s return makes Cubs’ already stellar starting rotation even better
Cease has already made a start against the Cubs this season, tossing six innings of two-hit ball and allowing two runs (both unearned) in a 10-2 win on April 10 in San Diego.
The Padres also play the White Sox this season, but that three-game set is in San Diego in September.
Rough season in 2023
Cease was one of baseball’s best pitchers with the White Sox in 2022, going 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA in 32 starts. He had a career-best 227 strikeouts in 184 innings and finished second in the AL Cy Young Award race.
But his ERA ballooned to 4.58 in a career-high 33 starts last year, and the White Sox finished with a 61-101 record.
“I still think that in the minds of a lot of people, we had a really good chance to compete,” Cease said. “I think we feel like we had a good chance to compete, and we just didn’t put it together.
“We had a really bad year, and it obviously kind of led to the need to kind of redo everything.”
After months of rumors and speculation, Cease was traded to San Diego in March for reliever Steven Wilson and three prospects, right-handers Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte, and outfielder Samuel Zavala. Cease quickly jumped on a plane and joined his new team in South Korea.
With Cease pitching for the Padres, the White Sox dropped 22 of their first 25 games this season.
“Baseball’s one of those games where anything can happen, and funky things can happen,” Cease said. “For all we know, they’ll go on a nice little win streak and kind of even that out. But yeah, it’s a little bit surprising.”
Cease has made a smooth transition to his new surroundings. He’s 4-2 with a 2.55 ERA in seven starts this season. He also has 48 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings, looking more like the pitcher he was two years ago.
Cease said his good numbers so far are the result of adjustments he started making last year.
“Basically just figuring out how to stay closed,” he said. “I feel like, for me anyways, the most difficult thing for pitching is staying closed, because it is such a rotational movement.”
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