SEATTLE — When Drew Thorpe arrived in March as part of the Dylan Cease trade, Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz thought it wouldn’t be long before the right-hander made his way to a major-league mound.
Getz described Thorpe as a pitcher who was “knocking on the door.”
That door opened Tuesday at T-Mobile Park. And Thorpe made quite the impression, allowing one earned run in five innings in his major-league debut against the Seattle Mariners. He left with the lead but did not factor in the decision in the 4-3 loss.
“I can’t really put it into words,” Thorpe said of the day. “Working for this my whole life and dream come true.”
Thorpe allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits. He struck out four and walked two in the 98-pitch outing.
“This is a tough team to pitch against because they don’t chase much and they did a good job controlling the strike zone,” manager Pedro Grifol said of the Mariners. “And he did a good job pounding the strike zone.
“He looked under control out there. He looked like he had done it before.”
Catcher Martín Maldonado said Thorpe’s “ability to throw his secondary pitches for strikes,” stood out.
“First start, I liked what I saw,” Maldonado said. “He worked hard to be here and he didn’t show any emotions. The only emotion was he threw the ball to the backstop (while warming up before the first).
“His bullpen coming into the game was really good and the same thing in between innings, he made good adjustments. That’s always good to see.”
Shortstop Paul DeJong called Thorpe a “Cool, calm and collected type guy.”
“I liked his composure, I liked his poise out there,” DeJong said. “I was glad to see him go out there and do his thing.”
The Sox acquired Thorpe, along with reliever Steven Wilson, minor-league pitcher Jairo Iriarte and minor-league outfielder Samuel Zavala from the San Diego Padres for Cease on March 13. It was the second major trade involving Thorpe in four months. He was dealt to the Padres from the New York Yankees as part of the Juan Soto trade in December.
The No. 3 rated prospect in the Sox organization according to MLB.com, Thorpe found out he was making the jump from Double-A Birmingham to the majors on Sunday morning.
“It was super exciting,” he said. “It was a long game day on Sunday, for sure.”
The 23-year-old was brilliant with the Barons, going 7-1 with a 1.35 ERA in 11 starts. And he began his major-league career with a 1-2-3 first inning, finishing it by fanning Julio Rodríguez for his first MLB strikeout.
Thorpe began the matchup against Rodríguez with a 92.5 mph fastball for a called strike. He threw another fastball, clocked again at 92.5 mph according to MLB Statcast, which was fouled off.
With the All-Star in an 0-2 hole, Thorpe went to his top pitch — a changeup. Rodríguez swung and missed the 84.5 mph pitch.
“I threw a good one and he swung over it,” Thorpe said. “It was pretty surreal. Grew up watching him over the last couple of years and a really good player. Super cool.”
Thorpe’s changeup was on display throughout the night. He threw 38 changeups (39%) in the outing and got seven swings-and-misses.
“That helps me out quite a bit,” Thorpe said. “Knowing it’s my bread and butter, it’s what I’m going to throw and throw a lot. It’s helpful that it does play up here.”
Thorpe ran into a little trouble in the second. He retired the first two hitters before surrendering a double to Luke Raley. Mitch Garver followed with another double, driving in Raley to tie the score at 1. Thorpe walked Dominic Canzone but limited the damage to just one run by striking out Ryan Bliss.
He returned to the mound in the third with a 3-1 lead thanks to back-to-back home runs by Andrew Vaughn and DeJong.
An error hurt the Sox that inning, as Nicky Lopez couldn’t cleanly field Josh Rojas’ grounder to second. Lopez immediately got another opportunity when Rodríguez bounced one his way. The Sox got the force out at second, but couldn’t complete the double play.
With two outs, Rodríguez stole second and scored on a double by Cal Raleigh, cutting the Sox lead to 3-2.
Thorpe had an important shutdown inning in the fourth, striking out two in the scoreless frame.
“Your team scores runs for you, your job is to go put a zero on the board,” Thorpe said. “That’s all I was trying to do.”
Thorpe fielded his position well in the fifth, hopping off the mound to get to a ball hit by Raleigh and making the throw to first for the final out of the inning — and his outing.
“That looked like a shortstop out there,” DeJong said of the final out.
The Sox stumbled late, as Raleigh drove in two with a two-out double against reliever John Brebbia in the seventh. But the team got a positive look at the future with Thorpe.
He was already thinking ahead.
“Good to get the first one out of the way and hopefully build on that and get better for the next one,” Thorpe said.
After Tuesday’s game, he soaked in the experience with family members who made the trip.
“Pretty close to home so it was an easy flight for them, which is nice,” said Thorpe, who was born in Utah. “They’ve been there for me my whole life. Being able to have them here supporting me, unbelievable.”
