Chicago White Sox fans will always remember former starting pitcher Dylan Cease with reverence. He was a Cy Young runner-up and their best pitcher in 2022. He was creative and had a great personality. The White Sox decided to try to get something for him, in return, so they sent him to San Diego for a handful of picks.
So long Cease.
Dylan Cease On The 2023 White Sox
In a recent article on ESPN.com Cease called out some of the not-so-fun things about the White Sox during his last year with the team.
2023 Season
In so many words, Cease stated that his last season with the Sox
“wasn’t enjoyable in really any way.”
We all know what the team and what Cease went through in 2023. They lost more than 100 games, Cease didn’t look like the guy that he looked like when he was a Cy Young runner-up the previous season. The team as a whole couldn’t get things right.
The San Diego Padres are in Chicago to play the Cubs. Cease said,
“It’s definitely exciting coming to the ballpark.” But swinging back to the Sox, he said “Again with the Sox though, I mean, I really felt like we had that talent. We just didn’t put it together.”
Ironically, Cease is playing the team that drafted him in the Cubs way back in 2014. It was a trade between the White Sox and the Cubs, back in 2017, that brought Cease and current designated hitter Eloy Jimenez to the Sox.
Following his Cy Young runner-up season, Cease had a pretty tough 2023. The team, as a whole, had a pretty tough go of it in 2023.
Cease made some remarks on that. He said,
“I still think that in the minds of a lot of people we had a really good chance to complete.” “I think that we feel like we took a 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.”
This Season
Thoughts that the White Sox would end up trading Cease away began before the trade deadline in 2023. Chicago held onto him, however, and got lucky that he didn’t get hurt thus diminishing his trade value. Instead, Cease held his breath for several months before finally being traded to the Padres.
In commenting on the White Sox horrid start to the 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.”
How is Cease doing? Right now, he’s got a 2.19 ERA and has won five games while losing two in seven starts. He’s doing better than he did last year. The White Sox likely miss his production but will hope that they get the most out of the guys that they got in return for him (from the Padres).
Main Photo Credits: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
