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Dylan Cease has been a revelation for the San Diego Padres. Following a very disappointing 2023 campaign and an eventual trade, a change in scenery seems to have worked wonders for the pitcher. He's rebounded, and he recently opened up on how things went down.
Cease said his final season in Chicago was not enjoyable, adding via ESPN that things are different now:
"It's definitely really exciting coming to the ballpark," Cease said. "Again with the Sox though, I mean, I really felt like we had that talent. We just didn't put it together."
He still firmly believes that the Chicago White Sox had the talent to play well, but it just never materialized:
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"I still think that in the minds of a lot of people we had a really good chance to compete," Cease added. "I think 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."
The White Sox have struggled mightily to open the season without Cease. They're 8-27, one of just two teams who have not yet reached double-digit wins on the year (Colorado Rockies are 8-26). Cease noted that baseball is funny and that for all anyone knows, a winning streak is around the corner in Chicago.
Dylan Cease back to Cy Young form in San Diego
Dylan Cease had a disappointing 2023, posting a 4.58 ERA, the worst of any full season in his career. He also had a 4.02 BB/9 rate, so he was having trouble with command and limiting damage.
It was a strange year since just one season prior, Cease was a Cy Young finalist. This year, he seems to have recovered his form and is pitching really well once again and currently has a 2.55 ERA. Cease's 1.3 fWAR is among the league leaders for starting pitchers.
The Padres took a big swing in trading for him when they weren't expecting to contend, but it has paid massive dividends thus far.
