White Sox Finalist To Sign Former Top 100 Prospect
The White Sox are one of the finalists to land right-handed pitcher Erick Fedde. On Monday MLB Network’s Mark Feinstein reported that Fedde’s decision is coming down to the White Sox and Mets and is expected to be in the two-year $10 million range.
Fedde spent the last season in South Korea with the NC Dinos. The 30-year-old turned in a solid season for the Dinos, posting a 2.00 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 180 1/3 innings of work. He managed to log 21 quality starts in 30 games. Fedde also racked up 209 strikeouts resulting in a 29.5% strikeout rate while limiting his opponent’s walk rate to under 5%.
Fedde is a former first-round pick who was drafted by the Nationals 18th overall in the 2014 draft out of UNLV. He probably would have been drafted inside the top 10 if not for the Tommy John surgery that delayed his professional debut to 2015.
Scouts raved about Fedde’s command and control of the strike zone coming out of college and that has remained consistent throughout his professional career. Fedde quickly rose through the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A in 2017 and earning a spot as MLB Pipeline’s No. 60 prospect. He reached the big leagues before the season ended in a temporary starter role with the Nationals. Fedde struggled in his big league debut. The right-hander allowed 25 hits in his first 15.1 MLB innings and was tagged for a 9.36 ERA in three games before getting sent back to Triple-A.
In 2018 he missed significant time due to shoulder inflammation. He did start 11 games for the Nationals but posted a 5.54 ERA while opponents batted .286 off of him. After bouncing between Triple-A and the big leagues he earned a permanent spot in the Nationals rotation in 2020. It was a role that he held for three seasons.
The 2020 season was the only year he held an ERA under 5.00. However, in 2021 he did post a career high in innings pitched (133.1) and strikeouts (128). The Nationals declined to tender him an arbitration contract following the 2022 season which forced him to test his luck in the KBO.
While pitching in South Korea Fedde worked on his pitching arsenal. He made some adjustments to his slider and altered the grip to his changeup which seemed to net him some positive results.
The White Sox would give Fedde a chance to be a front-of-the-rotation starter while also pitching in a much less stressful environment than New York. The White Sox love taking fliers on former top 100 prospects and Fedde would fit the bill. Even if he struggles the White Sox are looking for a cheap starter to eat innings as they try to evaluate some of their younger arms such as Jake Eder and Nick Nastrini.