Feb. 10: The White Sox have officially announced the Fedde signing. It’s a one-year, $1.5MM deal. Left-hander Ky Bush was placed on the 60-day IL to open up a 40-man spot for Fedde. Bush had Tommy John surgery in February 2025.
Feb. 9: 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
Oliver Gonzales will eventually be the best part of the Eric Fedde/Tommy Edman/Miguel Vargas deal. Like Dan Haren, and Sandy Alcantara before him.
Sox are going all out for 70 wins this year!
Ill predict 83-88 wins. Biggest contributors will be in no particular order Munetaka Murakami, Colton Montgomery & Kyle Teel. TEEL 20+ HR & Murakami & Montgomery 30+ with possibly 40+ for the latter 2
Vegas has them at 64-65 wins, which is 97 or 98 losses. Your post is kooky talk. They won’t win 75 games in a season before 2030 most likely.
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…
Buehler, hes an ace if the team makes it to the championship series or the world series. Theres only a handful of guys who are more clutch than him in the big games. 15-20 million a year seems fairly reasonable for him. Comparing him to Dustin May he’s worth that much if not more. I could see him signing with the Yankees, Orioles, Astros, Cubs, Mets, with a very slim possibility of resigning with the Red Sox. Leaning more towards one of the Cubs, Yankees, or Mets with a slimer chance Astros, or Orioles, and very slim chance Red Sox
That B-tier hasn’t really moved, other than Nick Martinez (if you put him in that group)
Did you feel refreshed?
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
He gonna come out on opening day glove arm tucked in his jersey saying “I lost my other arm in Korea fighting off the communists”
Or fending off Sir Robin forcing him to run away! Run away! (Tis a flesh wound)
It was deliberate, nobody panic that was deliberate
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.
You have seen the Angels, right? They might lose 100 games this season.
As a Sox fan: no
Not a chance they finish ahead of Detroit, KC, or Cleveland.
I forgot about the twins and nats and cards my bad
The floor would appear to be 4th. The ceiling? Division if Tigger gets frugal and dumps pitching
Funny.
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.
They are each depth options at this point, either for the rotation or bullpen. Both are fairly full as we post.
We will know sooner about how the White Sox feel about Jonathan Cannon going forward. He likely ends up at AAA Charlotte. His role there is yet to be determined and is also pending spring injuries and where the White Sox assign their top rotation prospects to begin the 2026 season.
A decision regarding Ky Bush will have to wait until he completes his TJ rehab. It will also depend on some of the same decisions that impact Cannon.
That’s a lot of nothing mediocre pitching.
What about Sandlin?
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.
This is an ICE BLOCK take.
They could finish as high as 2nd in their weak division. Surely will finish ahead of the Twins.
The Sox added a stack of AAAA players. They are not approaching .500 this year or finishing 2nd in the division. Stop being ridiculous.
@roob: second, maybe third behind the Tigers and Royals, but the Royals don’t really got much. The Sox added some useful players, and Murakami will hit 40+ homers into the El Nino summer sky. And, importantly, the Sox’ young players will step forward, including Montgomery, who will also hit 40. The Sox will be a fun, tough young team. They will surely be .500, probably better. Wait and see.
Re:”Stop being ridiculous”: Stop being so familiar with me, so personal. You don’t know me. Express your opinions, but don’t insult others’.
Some of the ishbia cash coming online as well. Just wait til they reunite the brothers Acuna in ’28!
I can’t quit you Erick Fedde
Boras spinning yarns in his sales pitch to the Pale Hose. $1.5M… what’s Scott’s cut?
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
It was a 3 team where Sox got players from Dodgers. So maybe Sox Cardinals and Rays instead, since they’re in every 3-way now?
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.
My optimistic read it that Erick Fedde will be released before Spring Training ends. I see no spot in ChiSox rotation for a Fedde resurrection. I’d rather go with a 7 man rotation with 2 pitchers going 3+ inning to build up arms. I think this signing is for a injury waiting to happen move. No way he breaks camp with ChiSox unless of a injury in Spring
Bad take lmao. No team would ever run a 7 man rotation. Fedde is the 5th starter who eats innings fine.
TUD – It was tongue-in-cheek dude or dudette
By 2040 MLB teams will be carrying minimum 10 starters, all of them will throw 100MPH+ and nobody will pitch more than 2 innings for optimization purposes.
Fedde 5th starter, Newcomb bullpen swingman. The White Sox are cobbling an interesting team together
Despite a promise from the White Sox for a shot at a rotation spot this spring, Sean Newcomb is currently their best option as the team’s late inning go-to lefty.
Pending additional transactions, the White Sox should leave their “bullpen swingman” roles for Mike Vasil and Grant Taylor. Vasil excelled as a bullpen swingman last year while Taylor is scheduled for a similar role in 2026 in order to increase his workload for a rotation spot come 2027.
Says Mr Obvious
They said Vasil will be trying for a starting spot this year
Let’s Go! White Sox to the Super Bowl!
BTW……when is the Super Bowl?
Valentine’s Day in Inglewood!
I would much rather the White Sox keep bringing Fedde back on one-year “show me” deals if it means Mike Clevenger has to look elsewhere for innings.
Cleverness signed with another team already. Forgot who
tasteefreeze
Pirates Sign Mike Clevinger To Minor League Deal
Alright! 5+ era! Will fight right in! Again!
In fairness, his best success came with the Sox. Houser pitched well for them, too, but wasn’t good before or after. Sox are an underrated pitching lab. Not saying Fedde is good, but if he makes the rotation, I think he’ll do significantly better than his ’25 numbers.
Horrible, even from a bargain bin standpoint. So many better options. Quintana, Canning, Nick Martinez, Littell etc
One would hope this is a hedge on Paez the Rule 5 pick and Fedde is destined for long relief / depth / 6th starter (assuming he wins the job) with the intention of bringing one of the names you mentioned aboard. Possibly see what they have first in Fedde until Canning is ready type of thing.
Finally found the guy who’s Fedde up with Erick and the Sox.
ItzJustAPrankBro – But that would mean owner would have to pay more than $1 for any of the others you mentioned
White Sox legend Fedde Wap is back
The sox got a cy young award winner signed. Mission accomplished
In Japan.
Korea.
Jonathan Cannon makes roster easily.
No way
Cannon would be an all star on the Brewers/dodgers.
Coop will fix em…
Haha
This is nothing more than the Sox hoping to give Schultz, Smith, Sandlin, Opor, McDougal and Paez more time in the minors, before the rosters expand after the trade deadline. We got Vargas for him in the first trade, what might he get us if he starts pitching well again, before the trade deadline?
Just another rebuilding year. If everything goes right they could win 75 games. Or, they could lose 100 again.
Im back! Im back! Im back in the saddle again.
This is just throwing a coin in a wishing well and hoping you get a prospect back at the trade deadline.
I mean if he has a ERA around 4 and can stay healthy and eat innings someone will bite and give a dumper of a lower A filler prospect
The day that Pitchers and Catchers report used to be my favorite day. Knowing that my favorite team has no chance to make the playoffs because of their ownership and management makes this day really sad
We’re a year closer from Justin Ishbia owning the team.
Best LHP Closer they could have signed 🙂