ORLANDO, Fla. -- New White Sox pitcher Anthony Kay doesn't have a wild story of a mechanical overhaul, or rebuilding his delivery into something that suits the way his body moves to a degree he had never experienced before.
But there are always nits to pick in any player comparison, and in the sparse selection for White Sox success stories over the past three years, Kay discovered one that he found pretty encouraging when deciding his future home. Maybe two, if you really stretch the comparison.
"The biggest thing was the success they had with Erick Fedde coming back over from Korea," Kay said in a Zoom call after his two-year, $12 million deal was finalized on Tuesday morning. "It was a pretty similar situation to be able to come back over and thrive in the role of being back in the big leagues. Another thing is the success they had with Garrett Crochet, and having him go from a reliever back to starter, that kind of showed that they have a plan for guys like me and it really showed that the success they have had had was a huge part of it."
Kay, 30, was never a reliever by orientation, but as a matter of course from him not ever finding a foothold in an MLB rotation in his 20s. And when the Mets drafted him at the back of the first round of the 2016 draft, strike-throwing was never the issue for the compact left-handed changeup artist. His 12 percent walk rate in 85⅓ career major league innings was more a function of not having a fastball shape -- even as a lefty sitting 94 mph -- that could avoid damage in the strike zone without ideal location.
Nibbling around the plate never looks like confident pitching, and as Kay struggled, bouncing around the league on the waiver wire and back and forth between the majors and Triple-A, soon enough his actual confidence was also dampened. He felt the tentative approach followed him to his first year in Japan, where he accumulated a more pedestrian 3.42 ERA with a 9 percent walk rate in 136⅔ innings, but that things began to turn during Yokohama's NPB playoff run in 2024 and took off from there.
Kay now blitzes the strike zone with a sinker and cutter in addition to his four-seamer, rarely overpowering hitters but frequently frustrating them. The contact-heavy style of NPB hitting doesn't reward hunting strikeouts, and Kay embraced the craft of simply staying off the barrel to the tune of a 55.8 percent ground ball rate, his walk rate dropping to 6.8 percent, and Yokohama franchise-record 1.74 ERA in 155 innings.
"My first year, I really wanted to pitch like I was in America; get a lot of strikeouts and all that," Kay said. "I struggled a little bit in my first year over there, just giving up a lot of free walks and stuff like that. Once I kind of realized, be a little bit more aggressive and attack the zone, I think my second year that showed that’s why I had the year that I had."
With Brian Bannister already a believer in sinkerballers who can work horizontally across the strike zone as undervalued profiles, and Zach Bove coming over from having success with Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron using multiple fastballs, Kay said he quickly found alignment during his Zoom call with White Sox pitching coaches during free agency. While a source indicated that Kay had possibly more lucrative offers to stay in Japan, the left-hander said he always planned to spend two years abroad and then return to ply his trade in his home country and show he can stick.
"Getting to start again and finally get to be consistent in the big leagues was very attractive for me, to come back and be a key fit for the White Sox and helping them win some games," Kay said.
Of course, to win some more games than past years, the White Sox have to become a team a bit more suited to Kay's talents. His 21.5 strikeout percentage last season is a tick below major league average and certainly shouldn't be expected to spike against a deeper talent pool. This is a ground-ball pitcher coming over to pitch in front of a defense that Statcast rated 22nd in Fielding Run Value last season.
Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth both graded out as above-average up the middle, which is both the most important area, and speaks to how deeply the Sox struggled at the corners (29th in FRV). There was both more churn on the infield corners last year, and it's an uncertain picture for 2026 too.
Miguel Vargas is still expected to cycle between third and first next season, as his bat plays better at the former, but his glove performed better at the latter. Lenyn Sosa is playing first and second in the Venezuelan winter league but remains an enigma defensively, though he is a fallback option at second base for his home country's World Baseball Classic roster if José Altuve drops out. Based how infrequently they are mentioned by leadership, Curtis Mead and Bryan Ramos (both out of options) will both be fighting for whatever role they land next spring. The White Sox's interest in Ryan O'Hearn is mostly representative of their need for more strong left-handed hitters, but he also had the best defensive season of his career at first base last year, grading out at +4 DRS and +6 FRV.
"For right now, the focus is on the guys that we have," said Will Venable. "You look at some of our defenders are on the corner and there's specific things from pre-pitch setup, first step stuff that we think we can continue to get some improvement on from these guys. That's what our focus is going to be."
As was brought up often by White Sox people arguing for his 2023 All-Star candidacy, Fedde didn't need a functional roster around him to have his overseas success translate to the South Side. But if the Sox are to go 2-for-2, and turn some anecdotal success in importing contact-oriented innings eaters from NPB and KBO into a real demonstrated formula, their work to actualize Kay will likely have to extend beyond putting good information in front of him, to fielding reliable gloves behind him.
