The White Sox are bringing Erick Fedde back to the organization on a one-year deal, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The deal is pending a physical. Fedde is represented by the Boras Corporation.
Fedde returns to the organization with which he made his MLB comeback in 2024. The former first-round pick and top prospect struggled through parts of six seasons with the Nationals before signing with the Korea Baseball Organization’s NC Dinos and reinventing himself. He won the KBO’s Cy Young Award equivalent (the Choi Dong-won Award) and was named KBO MVP in 2023. Fedde parlayed that into two years and $15MM with the White Sox, who plugged him right into the rotation.
The early portion of Fedde’s 2024 season could scarcely have gone better. He was Chicago’s best starter and looked every bit like a quality big league arm. In 121 2/3 frames with the South Siders, he turned in a 3.11 earned run average, a 21.5% strikeout rate, a 6.8% walk rate and a 44.7% ground-ball rate. The contract looked like a clear bargain, and the rebuilding White Sox naturally drew plenty of interest in the right-hander ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. Fedde ultimately went to the Cardinals as part of a three-team deal that netted the White Sox current third baseman Miguel Vargas and a pair of prospects while sending utilityman Tommy Edman from St. Louis to the Dodgers.
Fedde pitched decently with the Cardinals down the stretch in ’24. His rate stats slipped a bit, and he gave up a fair bit more hard contact, but his overall 3.72 ERA (4.05 FIP, 4.22 SIERA) in 55 2/3 frames was plenty respectable.
The 2025 season was a nightmare, however. Fedde’s strikeout rate cratered to 14% as his walk rate jumped north of 10%. He was tagged for a 5.22 ERA in 101 2/3 innings (20 starts) before being cut loose by the Cardinals. Subsequent deals with the Braves and Brewers didn’t bring about much more success. By the time the season was over, Fedde had a 5.49 ERA in 141 frames. He hadn’t lost any velocity off his heater, but Fedde’s command was clearly nowhere near as sharp as it was in 2024 — particularly in his early run with the White Sox.
Now back with Chicago, Fedde seems like he’ll have a chance to step into the rotation once again. The fifth spot behind Shane Smith, Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Anthony Kay seems up for grabs, with Fedde and fellow free agent pickup Sean Newcomb standing as the presumptive front-runners after signing major league deals this winter. Whichever of the two doesn’t grab the spot could open a swingman role, although there’s enough inexperience in the rotation — to say nothing for the inherent potential for injury faced by all teams — that it’s possible both Fedde and Newcomb will be starting games early in the season.


Lmaooo
I don’t know much about pitching, but will Fedde make the starting rotation? Maybe relief?
Yes to SP
Bullpen seems better stacked now than rotation, especially if Newcomb ends up as a reliever as I think he should. Fedde would be in competition for a starter role.
I refresh, come here, and see this. Starting pitching market heating up?
Kid of. All lower market arms.
It is the pre spring training rush on back end depth.
Motto steal Fedde’s thunder, but with this signing and Nick Martinez landing a $13MM deal with the Reds where and what what price does everyone here think Walker Buehler will land?
*Not to steal Fedde’s thunder…
Lol welcome back to the Sox I guess!
Getz – good move
Depth option
They needed an arm. He has an arm. Checked that box.
Even better, he has two arms.
Now you’ve jinxed him
They’re making sure Jordan Hicks knows he will NOT be in the rotation.
Hmm-looks like toast after leaving. Very low expectations/upside, so hope they didn’t use up more than 5mil from the JR budget constraints.
The payroll is around ~95M since dumping LRJ to the Mets.
Braves legend you will not be missed.
White Sox are gonna be sneaky good this year. Not actually good, but good enough to finish in 2nd place in a soft division.
They’ll unlikely have a winning record but this is the most money they spent in awhile which is somewhat refreshing.
The Rockies might be the only basement dweller this year!
Nationals and Twins are also pretty bad heading into the season…..but even if it’s just 3 obvious, that’s less than usual until the injuries/lack of depth sink more.
Good signing. When Anthony Kay got signed I thought of him as Eric Fedde 2.0. so now we have both these guys. Will be interesting to see who makes the starting 5 out of sprint training.
Shane Smith is a virtual lock. Kay and Burke would have to really suck to not make it. Other two rotation spots are up for grabs.
Davis Martin looks to be the current White Sox #2 behind Shane Smith. My projected opening day rotation:
1-Shane Smith (R)
2-Davis Martin (R)
3-Anthony Kay (L)
4-Sean Burke (R)
5-Erick Fedde (R)
RHP Drew Thorpe could be back in the MLB rotation by June 1st with no setbacks in his TJ recovery and minor league rehab starts. Same goes for LHP Ky Bush.
RHP Jonathan Cannon is an additional depth option. The spring wild cards are veteran LHP Sean Newcomb and RHP Mike Vasil who are better suited to relief roles but were promised a shot at the rotation ahead of camp.
Potential mid-season promotions include top lefty prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith along with righty Tanner McDougal.
Ky Bush and Jonathan Cannon are better off as long relievers tbh. Ky Bush did have an average underlying metrics such as an elite barrel rate back during the 2024 trainwreck season in a small sample size but still had poor command with a high walk rate. Cannon on the other hand was hit hard with a sophomore slump.
White sox all in now. They looming to play spoiler in the central.
Team is loaded from top to bottom now.
Who thought it would take until 2030
Eat then words. JR spending cash to get 1 more title before he croakes
I’m a die-hard Sox fan and this isn’t a hot take, it’s a McDonald’s-apple-pie-filling-temperature take. If all goes perfectly, I see them maxing out at 80 wins. Realistically, I think 72 and hope for 75. Winning a division might be a good goal next year; it’s too high for this year.
I can’t quit you Erick Fedde
Trade Deadline August 2026. St. Louis Cardinals have traded their top two prospects to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Erick Fedde.
Don’t count out a Brewers reunion, he got a playoff check last year
To be fair, Fedde was pretty good for the first two months last year, including an excellent complete game shutout. He then completely fell apart starting in June and was so bad from then on that his season line ended with a 5.49 ERA even including those two solid months.