Is Cease going to be the White Sox's next impact starter?
In retrospect, sending Jose Quintana to the Cubs last season in a straight-up trade for Eloy Jimenez would have been an enticing deal for the White Sox.
General manager Rick Hahn wanted more.
"The Quintana trade doesn't happen without Dylan Cease being part of it," Hahn said. "He was a very important part of that for us."
Cease showed why this season, going a combined 12-2 with a 2.40 ERA with high Class A Winston-Salem and AA Birmingham.
A 22-year-old right-hander, Cease was 9-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 71⅔ innings for Winston-Salem.
Promoted to Double-A on June 21, Cease was even better at the higher level, going 3-0 with a 1.72 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 52⅓ innings for Birmingham.
As Michael Kopech has shown in his first two outings with the Sox, an impact starter can quickly change a team's competitive level.
Cease is next in line.
"We really viewed him entering this year similar to how we viewed Kopech a year prior, a kid with electric stuff, a kid with a very high ceiling, and someone who had yet to be able to physically take the ball every fifth day," Hahn said. "So just as it was with Michael a year ago, we wanted Dylan to take the ball every fifth day and we were pretty sure if he was going to do that, the performance was going to be good and his placement was going to be dictated by how that performance went."
While he dominated two minor-league levels this season, Cease pitched 124 innings. That was quite a bit more than the career high 93⅓ innings he logged in 2017, so the White Sox shut down Cease for the season late last week.
It was a wise move.
Cease has the stuff to slide into the No. 3 slot in the Sox's rotation behind Carlos Rodon and Kopech at some point in 2019, but he has to stay healthy.
Last year, he missed the final month of the season with a shoulder strain, and he had Tommy John surgery as a high school senior.
Cease had no physical issues this year.
"I think it's just the weight room, continuing to do my throwing program and making sure I get enough recovery and sleep and eat good," said Cease, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder.
After going 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 30 innings for Birmingham in July and being voted White Sox minor-league pitcher of the month, Cease was asked about eventually making it to the majors.
"I feel if I was up there right now, I could compete," he said. "I could definitely compete but I'm not that worried about it right now."
Considering he has a fastball that compares to Kopech's, a nasty slider, curveball and developing changeup, major-league hitters are going to worry when they see Cease on the mound in the not too distant future.