PHOENIX -- Since getting non-tendered after the 2022 season, Erick Fedde has modeled a changeup off Logan Webb, and gotten help from Shelby Miller on learning his sweeper. But the crux of his work at Push Performance in Scottsdale was embracing his naturally lower arm slot, and accepting that no longer straining to get on top of the ball would allow him to command his two-seamer the way he always wanted.
"I wish I would have made the move earlier, and of course had more success early on in my career," Fedde said.
Instead Fedde compiled over 450 innings of below-average results in the majors and his breakout season occurred in South Korea at the age of 30. All those factors capped his value to a two-year, $15 million deal, which fit perfectly to be the largest financial outlay of the offseason for a White Sox team that trimmed its 2023 payroll by roughly $50 million.
But as exciting as it is to see the White Sox pulling talent from the KBO, Fedde-like opportunities are still relatively rare. Without having approval to deploy more financial resources by ownership, and with an organizational defensive reputation that GM Chris Getz lamented earlier this week, that trims the avenues by which the White Sox can reel in outside talent.
Of late, their offseason has shifted to the realm of stockpiling non-roster invites, and when it comes to minor league deals, the ties are broken by even narrower factors: opportunity, incentives, comfort ... familiarity.
"We've become friends through the years and I know what [Mike Moustakas] can bring to the table, most importantly as a player," Getz said. "It allowed me to get a different type of access, perhaps. Why wouldn't you take advantage of something like that? I've got great respect for the person, the player, the family. We want him to come out here and be productive to help us win ballgames and that's the most important thing. But when it comes to connections with Royals, I look at the individual. If it happens to give me the benefit because there's a longer history, then so be it."
The Royals connections of White Sox acquisitions rightly get a ton of focus, since they've stashed their front office and dugout with Kansas City imports, and former Royal Andrew Benintendi is trying to shake off an underwhelming first season of a team-record $75 million contract. But even more of the White Sox offseason has been driven by familiarity. John Brebbia and new NRI Dominic Leone both flourished in the Giants bullpen with Brian Bannister. Dominic Fletcher was brought in to likely win the right field job after developing under Josh Barfield's tenure running the Diamondbacks farm system.
Backed into a corner of the previous regime's making, these are accessible means of building from the ashes of 2023 a roster that has some purpose for either developing young players, cultivating trade assets, doing a little of both and maybe winning some games.
The concern lies in that insularity has been the self-admitted White Sox kryptonite for years, and that metaphor only works if Superman cultivated kryptonite in his garage, and insisted upon seasoning all his meals with it. Getz has sought to combat that and has a series of outside hires to point to as notes of progress, but anything reminiscent to the processes that got the White Sox to this place is going to trigger some very well-earned skepticism.
That can really only be changed with results. Signs of the club diversifying their process are encouraging, hires of rising stars from outside club are encouraging. A trade of Dylan Cease would really stock the farm system, but Getz said the Orioles had yet to call him to cure their recent rotation ills by Thursday afternoon. But the Sox need to win more for their dalliances in familiarity to pass scrutiny. For now, they are just still looking for someone to hit right-handed pitching, and Moustakas -- former Royal, former Getz teammate -- hit them at a passable .254/.303/.418 clip last season. So here he comes.
"I want him to come in here and we'll see how he looks offensively," Getz said. "He's got a long history at third base and he can play first base. It's really about the bat. But I know he's in great shape and we'll see where that plays out."
Lightning Round(-Up)
*Michael Kopech has lost 20 pounds from last season, and said he feels more mobile and able to get into certain positions in his delivery more than ever before. Since his fitness level has never been a shortcoming before, it's less a question of the best shape of his life and whether his right knee is in it's best health of the last few years.
For the second-straight year, Kopech had a procedure to address a baker's cyst in his right knee at the end of the season. But he viewed this as less substantial than the meniscus tear that needed to be repaired at the end of 2022. Rather than rehabbing and rushing to get on schedule for the season, Kopech feels like he can incorporate the adjustments Bannister was suggesting to him on Wednesday.
"As a pitcher, a lot of times you think of being linear so much that you don’t want to over-rotate," Kopech said. "What he was kind of reiterating is that we’re going to naturally rotate anyway. So you kind of work with that plan instead of against it. And it was a new concept, but it made sense when he was talking about it. The execution on it probably wasn’t there as much as I would have liked it to have been yesterday, but I’m sure that a couple of more sessions and it’s not going to be far off."
*Nine months into Tommy John surgery rehab, Davis Martin is set to throw off a mound on Monday for the first time. While he's way too far out to have a specific return date, his rough goal is to be active again by the All-Star break.
Martin welcomed the birth of his first child, a son named Doak, during rehab and being injured allowed for him to be home and present throughout the early months. An aspiring strength coach, Martin started a master's program at the University of Florida's College of Health and Human Performance. Personally, it's worked out for the 26-year-old Martin, which is nice because the only solace on the pitching side is that it was inevitable.
Rather than sore and feeling like an injury was coming on, Martin felt a pulling sensation in the second-to-last pitch of his best-ever Triple-A start: six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts.
"It was all clicking: four pitches for strikes, we were getting swings and misses where we wanted to, it felt like everything was coming together," Martin said. "That was the frustration last year. Toward the end of year last year there was ample opportunity to solidify my career. You've just got to get over it, got to get ready and going forward I think absolutely I can start in the major leagues."
*Michael Soroka's final stint in Triple-A last season saw him hold opposing hitters to a .188/.256/.316 batting line in 32⅔ innings spread out over six starts. He was especially potent against the Charlotte Knights, allowing just four runs against them in 17 innings, with 19 strikeouts and four walks across three outings.
"Got to the point where I felt I didn’t belong there anymore, and that’s how I felt when I first got called up," Soroka said. "That’s kind of what led me to believe it was time to take the next step, and I’m very grateful an organization like the White Sox is giving me that.”
Soroka's return to the majors last September was cut short by shoulder inflammation that cropped up in his first outing back, but said, "I feel really good. Arm feels fresh and hopefully ready to throw a lot of innings this year.”
