White Sox pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Tuesday, and a familiar face will be joining them, as a source confirmed to Sox Machine that Erick Fedde is returning to the team the rejuvenated his MLB career on a one-year deal.
It's understandable while Chris Getz would go back to this well, if only because the first Fedde signing was both of their best work to date. The White Sox signed him in December 2023 off a KBO MVP season for two years and $15 million, which turned out to be a tremendous value. Fedde ended up leading the 2024 White Sox with 4.6 bWAR, even though he wasn't around for the final two months because the Sox traded him to the Cardinals in a three-team deal that netted Miguel Vargas and two prospects (Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus).
The first four months of Fedde's stateside return have still been his best ones, but it wasn't so long ago that Fedde was a useful pitcher, and you don't even have to go back to 2024 to find it. He was actually decent for St. Louis into last June, as he opened the 2025 season with a 3.54 ERA while averaging nearly six innings over his first 13 starts.
But there were signs of Fedde approaching a cliff, particularly with a strikeout rate that plummeted below 15 percent, the lowest among regular starting pitchers. The reckoning arrived swiftly, and it didn't relent the rest of the season. He allowed 31 runs over 28 innings over his last seven starts with the Cardinals before they designated him for assignment, and the Braves got more of the same when they picked him up to plug a hole in their injury-ravaged rotation. They released him after five games and an 8.10 ERA, and he spent the final month of the season pitching mostly low-leverage innings out of Milwaukee's bullpen. In one sense, he failed upward by landing with a World Series contender, but he did not make any of their postseason rosters.
Fedde doesn't have to worry about the postseason with the White Sox, he just has to worry about himself. The cutter that rounded out his arsenal with the Sox in 2024 got crushed in 2025. It definitely had a different shape, so perhaps the one trick to get him back on track isn't all that weird. Then again, Fedde is now 33, and even his White Sox success was predicated on fairly small margins, so there's a solid chance his peak form was always going to be difficult to maintain once the league updated its book.
Last week, Getz foreshadowed another spring where a wide cast of characters will receive a chance to stretch out into a multi-inning role as Cactus League opens. With Fedde in the fold, the White Sox now have seven options for their five-man rotation before bringing pitching prospects--or swingman Mike Vasil--into play.
- Shane Smith
- Davis Martin
- Anthony Kay
- Erick Fedde
- Sean Burke
- Jonathan Cannon
- Sean Newcomb
Fedde wasn't the only right-handed pitcher with sketchy peripherals to find a home today. Nick Martinez signed with the Rays for one year and $13 million, while Chris Paddack landed with Miami for one year and $4 million guaranteed, with another $500,000 possible through incentives.
