Cease caps breakout season with second-place finish in Cy Young voting
There aren't too many fond memories from a White Sox season that was packed with disappointment.
Dylan Cease's big year won't soon be forgotten.
Coming in quietly determined to show he could be a reliable starting pitcher in the middle of the Sox's rotation, the 26-year-old righty did much more than that.
Riding a slider that developed into one of the nastiest pitches in the game, Cease made a rapid rise and became the White Sox's ace while going 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA during his second full season as a starter.
A fastball that averaged 96 mph and a biting curveball also helped Cease pile up 227 strikeouts in 184 innings and hold opposing hitters to a .190 batting average.
On Wednesday, Cease's efforts were rewarded. He finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting behind Houston's Justin Verlander. Toronto's Alek Manoah was third in balloting for the league's best pitcher.
"I think it's one of those things that hasn't even really sunk in yet," Cease said on a Zoom call Wednesday night. "Growing up, it's just kind of hard to imagine even being in that position. I really loved and watched baseball a lot growing up so to be sitting here now, it's definitely really surreal.
"I watched Verlander since I was a little kid, so it almost doesn't feel real."
On the mound, Cease was the real deal for the Sox.
While earning the White Sox's best Cy Young showing since Esteban Loaiza also finished second in 2003, Cease really came alive in late May.
Over a stretch that ran into August, the 6-foot-2, 195-pounder set a major-league record with 14 straight starts allowing 1 earned run or less.
"It's always fun looking back and I can think of times where the bases loaded or where there were big situations with guys on third and one out and some how, some way there was a groundball or a strikeout," Cease said. "A stretch like that is really remarkable. In the midst of it, I was focused on continuing to try to bring out my best every time and that's where it ended up taking me and really was something special."
Cease showed promise in 2021 when he struck out 226 over 165⅔ innings while winning 13 games. But he was often burned by high early pitch counts and his ERA (3.91) was not great.
A savvy student of the game, Cease was able to make adjustments on the fly this season and the results showed.
"It's a lot of years of effort and some failures and some successes," Cease said. "It really all kind of came together and by far, it was my most consistent year ever as a professional. As the years have gone on, I have gotten a lot more comfortable with a lot of things that go along with being a big-league baseball player. I was comfortable this year and performing and producing always feels good.
"But it's a team game, so at the end of the day if the team is not doing well it's hard to really, I guess, not be a part of that negative feeling as well. I try to be as positive as I can and just grateful to be there."