White Sox add Fedde to starting rotation
While much of the talks at this week's winter meetings in Nashville have focused on the possibility of Dylan Cease being traded, the White Sox added a needed starting pitcher Tuesday.
Erick Fedde, a 30-year-old righty who floundered over parts of six seasons with the Nationals before turning it around in Korea in 2023, signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Sox.
The deal is pending a physical.
Pitching for the NC Dinos in the Korean Baseball Organization, Fedde was 20-6 with a 2.00 ERA.
With Washington in 2022, the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder was 6-13 with a 5.81 ERA. Overall, Fedde was 21-33 with a 5.41 ERA in 102 games (88 starts) for the Nationals.
Brian Bannister, the White Sox's new senior pitching advisor, weighed in on the Fedde signing on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday night.
"1. Fedde works out at the same facility as Logan Webb in the off-season," Bannister wrote. "2. He added the same sweeper + split-change to his arsenal as did Webb. He did not use these pitches in Washington. 3. (Sox pitching coach) Ethan Katz and I were both with Webb when these adjustments were made."
The Mets were the other reported finalist to sign Fedde.
If he can build off his strong showing in Korea, the White Sox's rotation will be in much better shape.
As it stands now, Cease is the only proven starter. General manager Chris Getz is listening to offers but does not appear to close to making a deal.
"There's certainly no urgency to move Dylan Cease," Getz told reporters. "We're talking about one of the best pitchers in baseball. There's a responsibility for your organization, for the Chicago White Sox, to do what's best for them. But Dylan's a star in our game.
"There's no real reason to come here and expect us to move Dylan Cease, but if a team brings something that meets a threshold that we feel we've just gotten a lot better, then we're going to do that."
Michael Kopech is coming off a rough season (5-12, 5.43 ERA) and he had knee surgery in late September.
The Sox acquired Michael Soroka in a November trade with the Braves, but he's been injury prone and hasn't pitched well since 2019.
Touki Toussaint is a candidate to start for the White Sox in 2024 after going 4-6 with a 4.97 ERA last season, but more help is still needed.
"We're looking to add multiple arms to our rotation and certainly you never feel you have enough depth when it comes to starting pitching," Getz said.