MIAMI — It’s early — very early — but right-hander Drew Thorpe’s first five major-league starts are suggesting the White Sox’ trade of Dylan Cease has a chance to be a good one.
The Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2023 who was traded for Juan Soto before Cease, Thorpe threw 6„ innings of one-run ball against the Marlins on Friday, lowering his ERA to 3.71. He has had one bad start — eight runs (seven earned) at the Diamondbacks in his second outing after being called up from Double-A Birmingham, where he had a 1.35 ERA in 11 starts — and four good ones with one, zero, two and one earned runs allowed.
“The kid is mature beyond his years,” pitching coach Ethan Katz told the Sun-Times on Saturday. “Everything that has come his way, he’s taken to and worked on.”
After his call-up, Katz said Thorpe, 23, was losing deception in his delivery.
“His front side was getting too low,” Katz said. “He’s done a good job fixing that in the last three starts after we brought the information to him. And then his breaking balls were blending — they were the same — but he’s doing a good job now of separating the cutter and slider speed differential.”
With a four-seam fastball averaging 91 mph, Thorpe is not a flamethrower, but his changeup is a premium pitch, and he needs to play it off his cutter and slider. And he has to locate the fastball for maximum effectiveness.
Early on, “he was opening up too soon, pulling balls down, and he wasn’t getting the ball to the top of the zone, which is the ideal location for his fastball,” Katz said.
He’s also getting his front side higher now, which hiked his velocity a notch.
“He has the great changeup,” Katz said. “That’s why he has to have the other stuff, too, to protect that pitch. Guys can’t sit on that. Get the fastball to the top, getting it in on guys, making sure the secondary spin is not the same.”
Thorpe took a shutout into the seventh inning of the win Friday against Miami. His 6.1 strikeouts per nine innings rank 11th on the Sox, but a 1.125 WHIP is second only to Garrett Crochet.
“Thorpe was good; we couldn’t get to the changeup,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “Even when we sat on it, we couldn’t hit it.”
The Sox also got reliever Steven Wilson, pitching prospect Jairo Iriarte, 22, and outfielder Samuel Zavala, 19, in the Cease trade. Zavala is batting .203/.357/.342 with six home runs in 70 games for High-A Winston-Salem. He’s the Sox’ No. 6 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. Iriarte, ranked No. 9, is 3-6 with a 4.61 ERA at Birmingham, and Wilson has a 3.46 ERA in 30 relief appearances for the Sox.
Crochet, Thorpe, Jonathan Cannon and prospects such as Noah Schultz, Ky Bush, Nick Nastrini and Iriarte have shown enough to create some optimism for the vital pitching component of the Sox’ rebuild.
For fans, trades of stars such as Cease and talk of trading Crochet can be cringeworthy. Time will tell, but early on, anyway, Thorpe is doing his part to make the trades of proven commodities for prospects feel acceptable. A 1.47 ERA over 18„ innings in his last three starts has helped Sox starters post a 3.28 ERA since June 7 for a 26-65 team.
General manager Chris Getz would like to add more future pieces before the deadline.
Cease, meanwhile, is 7-7 with a 4.24 ERA and a 3.27 FIP (fielding-independent pitching) for the Padres. He has an 8.05 ERA over his last four starts.
Thorpe will make his next start Wednesday against the Twins in Chicago.
“You learn and get ready for the next [start],’’ he said. “Just continue to do what we’re doing, stick to the game plan and not do too much.”
