Dylan Cease is a young power pitcher for the White Sox, but his dream was to be a power-hitting shortstop.
That’s what Cease told Jason Benetti during the NBC Sports Chicago broadcast of Thursday’s game at the Angels. Benetti was doing a solo broadcast with frequent guest appearances. Cease picked up a headset and talked to Benetti from the dugout during the top of the fifth inning.
He told Benetti about how he started throwing harder during high school and suddenly became an elite pitching prospect.
“My freshman year of high school I was throwing I think low 80s and then my sophomore year I came out to tryouts and all of a sudden I was throwing 93-94,” Cease said. “So then all my dreams of being a shortstop got taken away. I kind of focused more on pitching at that point.”
Cease explained that he played shortstop up until that point. The shortstops he looked up to were Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Troy Tulowitzki.
He hasn’t pitched at an NL opponent yet where he would have to bat, but it sounds like he will welcome the opportunity when it comes around.
MLB
“I wanted to be a power-hitting shortstop,” Cease said. “I did it to myself. I started throwing too hard.”
Nice humble brag from Cease. On the upside for him, it was at this point that he realized he probably had a pretty good future as a pitcher.
“Around 15 or 16 I started throwing in the 90s so I thought there was a decent chance I could somewhere with it,” Cease said.
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