Cease Fire A Positive Move

CHICAGO—Almost as quick as one of his 100-mph fastballs, righthander Dylan Cease needed just three starts at low Class A South Bend to show off no-hit stuff—for six scoreless innings April 19 against Great Lakes that included seven strikeouts before his pitch count ran out in the no-decision.

The kid player development boss Jason McLeod more than a year ago called a “lottery ticket” said afterward he was more proud of getting through the career-high six innings than allowing no hits.

That’s the key to Cease for the Cubs. They have yet to draft and develop a big league starting pitcher since Theo Epstein took over the baseball operation more than five years ago—much less a frontline-quality, impact power pitcher that the broad-shouldered Cease appears to be.

“He’s absolutely one of the more exciting prospects that we have in our organization, which is so fun to say in Year 5 that we’re talking about a pitcher as one of the most exciting players in our organization,” McLeod said.

The 6-foot-2 Cease, 21, is quick to say the Cubs have more pitching talent in the system than many might believe.

But he also knows what evaluators are saying about him—talked about with the same kind of reverence as vaunted homegrown hitters like Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber.

“I feel really excited and grateful that people think I could turn into that,” said Cease, a first-round talent who fell to the sixth in 2012 because of the surgery. “That’s what I’m working for. I want to give them everything I’ve got.”

It wouldn’t take much for Cease to notice what his development might mean to a championship team in the third year of a contending window.

“All that stuff is kind of background noise and out of my control,” Cease said. “I’m more focused on what are the little things I have to do every day to get up there and write my own story and be a part of something.”

CUBBYHOLE

• Ian Happ, the switch-hitter who got off to one of the hottest starts in the organization, is getting work at third base for the first time in his pro career.

• Top prospect Eloy Jimenez, the power-hitting outfielder who opened on the minor league disabled list because of a shoulder injury, is DHing in extended spring games.

— Gordon Wittenmyer covers the Cubs for the Chicago Sun-Times