BlinkVlog

The White Sox aren’t just collecting prospects these days, they’re assembling a core of physical specimens.

Eloy Jimenez looms over everyone. Alec Hansen towers, his height a topic of conversation whenever prospects get together. Lucas Giolito, another massive human being, has hands like saucers. Yoan Moncada looks like a model. Michael Kopech, tall, blonde and muscle-bound, preens on Instagram. Jake Burger, well, looks like a guy named Burger. Meanwhile, the perpetually shirtless Luis Robert looks like he’s training for the Thunderdome.

A fan asked who would win in an arm wrestling match between Kopech and Moncada. Kopech thinks Moncada would win, Moncada refuted in English “No way, this guy is fucking strong”

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) January 27, 2018

And then there’s Dylan Cease, a tall, lean, normal-looking guy who lives in Ball Ground, Georgia in the offseason and who just happens to have a 100 mph fastball and a nasty hook.

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“Finally got over 200 pounds,” he told me at SoxFest on Friday night. “It only took me four years.”

Cease, a right-hander, was listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds last year, or 10 pounds heavier than he was in 2014 when the Cubs drafted him in the sixth round out of Milton, Georgia. 

The weight gain wasn’t a focus this offseason, but a part of the maturation process as Cease strives to become a frontline starting pitcher in the majors.

“It looks like good weight too,” White Sox director of player development Chris Getz told me, presumably looking at this writer’s bad weight.

While Cease isn’t the most physically imposing presence in the White Sox’s stable of prospects — Sox Machine’s Jim Margalus compared him to the main character from “Office Space” — his stuff goes as hard, or harder, than anyone in the organization. Cease sits in the high 90s with his fastball and can embarrass hitters with his curveball and changeup.

He isn’t the first pitcher you think of when it comes to the Sox farm system — that’s Kopech, right now — but Cease has the fundamental tools to be a big part of the future White Sox rotation. Given the ascent of the Sox system, 2018 is going to be an important year to imagine what this team could look like in 2019 and beyond. 

Where does Cease fit in? Well, that’s up to him.

“I don’t really know my place in it,” he said. “I just gotta keep working to get better. It’s not something I worry about at all. I’ve got to go out and perform. If I don’t, I’ve got nobody to blame but myself.”

Cease was the Cubs’ top pitching prospect and when White Sox GM Rick Hahn contacted Theo Epstein about trading Jose Quintana, Cease and Eloy Jimenez were the must-haves.

“As we zeroed on a deal elsewhere and went through every club in baseball, it was here’s the line, who can get over this line,” Hahn told me in December. “If the Cubs were willing to start something with Eloy and Dylan Cease, that put them above the line.”

The Cubs stepped over the line with their prospect package, and Jimenez and Cease are now considered the first- and fifth-best prospects, respectively, in the White Sox organization.

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So why aren’t we talking about Cease more? Why was he left off an arbitrary, but widely read, top 100 list from Baseball America? 

Essentially, there’s only so much mental space to be taken up with White Sox prospects. Someone is bound to be left in the background.

“It’s whatever,” Cease said of the Baseball America omission. “It’s not going to hurt my feelings. If I’m No. 1, I’m definitely showing everybody. But no, I really haven’t looked at it or anything like that.”

Sure, sure. They all say that.

Cease was listed as No. 61 on MLB.com’s ranking list after we talked, down slightly from the previous iteration of that list.

Cease popped up on Baseball America’s Top 100 before last season at No. 97 and was 20 spots better for MLB.com. He moved up to No. 58 on the former list after his trade to the White Sox. But while he was on Keith Law’s Top 100 last season (No. 86), he’s not this year.

“That’s surprising, certainly,” Getz said of the Baseball America snub. “But to be honest, I don’t follow any of them.”

Sure, sure: Part 2.

Cease, as you might remember, was a big name picked by the Cubs five rounds after Kyle Schwarber and behind pitchers like Jake Stinnett, Carson Sands and Justin Steele in 2014. He went lower because elbow problems ended his high school senior season in March. A first-round talent facing Tommy John surgery, the Cubs still gave him a $1.5 million above-slot bonus.

“High-risk, high-reward,” Cease said.

He threw 24 innings in rookie ball in 2015 and then 44 2/3 innings over 12 starts in short-season A-ball with Eugene in 2016, where he struck out 66 and gave up just 11 earned runs.

Last season, he was finally turned loose. Cease had a 2.79 ERA with the South Bend Cubs, striking out 74 in 51 2/3 innings over 13 starts. After he joined the White Sox, he put up a 3.89 ERA with low Class-A Kannapolis (he somehow went 0-8 in nine starts), striking out 52 in 4 1/23 innings. All told last season, he struck out 126 and walked 44 in 93 1/3 innings. 

“My numbers weren’t as good in Kannapolis but I felt I pitched way better there than I did in South Bend,” Cease said.

Why? Improved fastball command. The bedrock of pitching, improving one’s fastball command as a minor league goal is a baseball cliche or truism, depending on whether or not it works. Cease credits Kannapolis pitching coach Matt Zaleski (a suburban Chicago native and former Sox draft pick) for some help once he arrived in July. Cease’s walk rate dipped from 12.2 percent in South Bend to 10.3 in Kannapolis.

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Cease had some minor shoulder trouble at the end of the season, but he’s ready for spring training.

“He threw [Friday] and was impressive,” Getz said. “The stuff, which always has been impressive, but his body is in a really good spot. His stuff speaks for itself. He really just needs to get out there and get some innings under his belt.”

Cease was paid handsomely by the Cubs because they saw a fastball capable of hitting triple digits and a complementary hammer curveball. But he’s been working on that third pitch, the elusive changeup that pitchers never quite seem to master in their minor league days.

“His changeup is sneaky good,” Getz said. “It’s one of those pitches to focus on this year. He’s got the makings, he really does.”

In his 2021 White Sox projected roster, our James Fegan slotted Cease into the closer role for a contending team. The Sox obviously aren’t there yet.

“I view him as a starter,” Getz said. “There’s no doubt. That being said, when you’re looking at guys with stuff like that, you could always put those guys in the bullpen. The stuff plays there too. Physically, there’s nothing that says he can’t hold up as a starter.”

Cease will almost certainly start at high Class-A Winston-Salem this spring. Where will he finish the year?

“He’s 21 years old,” Getz said. “He doesn’t know where he’s going to be. He’s like a sophomore in high school. It’s really early to say where he’s going to be, but he’s got a ton of potential.”

If all things remain equal, Cease perfects his curveball and keeps working on his fastball command, ending the season in Double-A Birmingham. As of now, 2019 makes sense for his major league debut. In an organization brimming with talented prospects, Cease has the room to carve out an identity for himself this season.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I did take a big jump,” he said. “But who knows? I still gotta play.”

(Top photo: Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images via AP Images)

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