11:15am: Kay will be paid $5MM in each of the next two seasons and has a $2MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2028 season, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports. He can tack on another $1.5MM via incentives.
11:04am: The White Sox and left-hander Anthony Kay are in agreement on a two-year, $12MM contract, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. The former first-round pick and top prospect, who’s represented by CAA, has spent the past two seasons pitching well for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
It’s a familiar page in general manager Chris Getz’s playbook: sign a former first-rounder to a two-year deal on the heels of a strong run pitching in one of the top leagues in Asia. That worked out reasonably well when Chicago signed Erick Fedde for two years and $15MM in the 2023-24 offseason; Fedde was traded to the Cardinals in a three-team swap in July 2024, netting the White Sox Miguel Vargas and minor league infielders Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez. Vargas was a league-average bat for the South Siders in 2025 and is controlled another four seasons. Albertus and Perez rank within the top 25 prospects in the Sox’ system.
The Sox will hope for similar results in their similarly priced investment into Kay. The 30-year-old southpaw (31 in March) has pitched 291 2/3 innings since heading to Japan. In that time, he’s logged a 2.53 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 54.5% ground-ball rate in 48 starts out of the BayStars’ rotation.
More to come.
Let’s gooooo, James Regan guessed right
Another pitcher off the market! This is a great move for the White Sox. Don’t think they’ll regret it.
I also like this deal more than the Ponce deal.
That is ridiculous
It’s overpay season…
It’s the realities of today’s market and the cost of doing business. The terms “overpay” or “underpay” are irrelevant.
Congrats to the Kay family.
Happy holidays!!
Going to Asia for a couple of years is now a viable career path.
I had the White Sox signing Cody Ponce in the free agent contest because of their success with Fedde. I was wrong, but I had the right idea clearly.
Cubs already tried to ” Fix” Kay with no success and they have a much better track record at doing that than the White Sox. So good luck.
The Cubs have a better track record with pitchers? Not in this reality.
Low-key a solid signing.
A better gamble than doubling down on fellow southpaw veteran Martín Pérez.