Dylan Cease has been one of, if not one the only bright spots on the so-far disappointing Chicago White Sox. Coming along with Eloy Jiminez and others to the White Sox from the Chicago Cubs in part of the Jose Quintana trade, he has shown glimpses of becoming a reliable starter in the rotation in the past, especially last year. Now, Cease has been showcasing a career year putting himself into the AL CY conversation with other AL pitchers like Justin Verlander and Shane McClanahan. Arguably, he was the biggest All-Star game snub and has been pitching brilliantly establishing that he is exactly that. Some of his statistics and peripherals, and how he ranks are as followed (Minimum 80 innings pitched):

1.96 ERA (3rd in MLB)

2.60 xERA (2nd)

2.75 FIP (9th)

3.12 xFIP (14th)

3.20 SIERA (13th)

33 K% (4th)

22.5 K-BB% (11th)

31.6 CSW% (7th)

3.6 fWAR (7th)

Statistics via Fangraphs

Percentile Rankings:

xSwSTr% (97th percentile in MLB)

xWhiff% (99th)

xCSW% (93rd)

xK% (94th)

xHR (90th)

Stuff+ (95th)

Pitching+ (83rd)

Percentile Rankings via Pitchingbot and MLBPitchProfiler

Gyro Slider

The 26-year-old's best pitch of his breakout year has been his slider. His slider has arguably been the best pitch of any pitcher in the entire league. His slider has a -31 Run Value, the fewest by any pitcher in baseball; the next closest is Corbin Burnes and his cutter at a -22 Run Value. Against the slider, hitters have been having a difficult time hitting the pitch which is perfectly on par with the expected stats- .128 xBA, .191 xSLG, .172 xwOBA. The name of the game for his slider has been getting whiffs which is exactly what he has done, having the 4th highest whiff% of any pitch at 47.3%. Classified as a "Gyro" slider because of his 24% spin efficiency.

4-Seam FB

In addition to his wipeout slider, Cease has one of the most electric fastballs in the game. Averaging 96.9 MPH, and being in the 97th percentile of FB spin rate of 2513 RPMs, he generally sits at the top of the zone to create more whiffs which is exactly what you want to do as a pitcher with such a high spin rate. Despite having little command of his back-spinning fastball, he is still able to get a 25.3 whiff%. Throwing it 39.4% of the time, he can get weak contact 2.7% of the time. Although weaker than his slider, he has a .227 xBA, .384 xSLG, and a .337 xwOBA signaling that the .250 BA, .413 SLG, .356 xwOBA against may regress.

After Thoughts

Dylan Cease may not win the AL CY, but having "plus" stuff to overcome his poor command is pure dedication to his craft. Not bad for a pitcher who didn't make the All-Star team.

Other sources used: Baseball Savant