I saw Dylan Cease’s start on Monday night and wanted to pass along some notes and video of him following his trade to the Padres. I also wanted to share fresh spring notes on the new White Sox prospects acquired yesterday. Let’s start with Cease. Here is my video from his unbroadcast start:

Cease sat mostly 95-96 mph, with a handful of pitches in the 97-98 range. His slider was its usual 85-87, with late, nasty break and plus length for a pitch of that velocity. His curveball is a second plus or better offering at 80-81 mph and has hitter-freezing depth. He looked like a contender’s front line starter. Padres and Rangers personnel were in attendance (there were a ton of scouts there — it was one of only two Cactus League night games Monday) and left once Cease was done.

You’re probably aware that we have both Jairo Iriarte and Drew Thorpe ranked as Top 100 prospects. I’ve made no change to their evaluations, but I do have some notes on their spring looks to pass along. Iriarte sat 92-95 in his March 1 outing, which is below what you typically see from him. A scout who saw him that day noted to me that his slider seemed more vertically oriented than usual.

Thorpe threw that day, too, and was 91-93 with the same dominant changeup that spearheads his placement on the Top 100. Per my scout source, he got seven whiffs on nine changeups that day.

Both Thorpe and Iriarte are on the Top 100, so you know where they stand in the White Sox system regardless of an update. The final prospect in the trade, teenage outfielder Samuel Zavala, has a fresh report and ranking on the White Sox list, which you can either read here or here. In short, I am not optimistic about him hitting. I have him stacked in the Chicago system near other White Sox prospects who have what I consider to be extreme hit tool risk.

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