Turning the Corner: Cease's Strong Outing Signals Progress

Dylan Cease did something on Sunday that he hadn’t done in 344 days. Make it through seven innings. 

The 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up has had a difficult time this season. He has struggled to eat innings and is having to work harder to put away hitters. The last time Cease went that deep into a game was when he tossed a complete game shutout against the Twins last season on September 3rd. 

Cease threw seven innings allowing just two runs on five hits in a 7-3 loss to the first-place Brewers. 

“This year has been mote og a grind. Last year was pretty effortless,” Cease told reporters after the game. “I feel like I was in that flow state most of my starts. This year, it’s been more working through things and figuring things out. But that’s a part of my game.” 

Cease is still just 27 years old and has yet to reach his ceiling. In three years in the White Sox rotation, he has made just 115 starts so there is still plenty of room to learn. 

His slider, which was the most dominant pitch in baseball in 2022 has suddenly looked mortal.  Last season Cease’s slider produced a 43.3 whiff rate and limited opponents to a .128 batting average. This season the whiff rate has dropped to 41.9 percent and the batting average has risen to .212. 

Cease’s biggest issue seems to be consistency. The Georgia native has struggled with command at times which has reduced the effectiveness of his slider. In his previous outing against the Rangers, he walked seven Yankees in just 5.1 innings.  Cease was able to hone in against the Brewers and limit them to just two free passes. 

White Sox manager Pedro Grifol believes the source of the issues comes from his mechanics. 

“Fastball command is a big deal,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “The mechanics have been touch and go for him all year. He works relentlessly on that with [bullpen coach Curt Hasler] and [pitching coach] Ethan [Katz]. There's some games where he comes out and he feels great mechanically, everything is in sync, and there's some games where it's not. He's got four great pitches. Fastball command for me is the determining factor of how great he can be.”

However, on Sunday he was able to hone in on his fastball command which helped keep the Brewers off balance. 

“He commanded the baseball, and he used his fastball,” Grifol added. “He normally mixes in a couple of sliders somewhere, especially with somebody we’ve been attacking with sliders. He flipped the script a little bit today.”

Cease produced nine swings and misses off 52 sliders, with three swings and misses against 34 four-seamers. The results don’t jump off the page but it was enough to earn his 10th quality start of the season.