CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 28: Chicago White Sox fans give a standing ovation to pitcher Erick Fedde (20) ... [+]
Erick Fedde is a commodity the White Sox must consider trading. But rather than feel pressure to strike quickly, rookie general manager Chris Getz should take his time as he talks to teams interested in the 31-year-old ace.
Fedde has returned from one season in Korea as the best starting pitcher in the American League. He’ll take a 4-0 record and a 2.60 ERA into a Monday start in Toronto — not bad on a team that is 14-33 with a 5.10 rotation ERA, better only than Oakland in the AL.
Take Fedde out of the equation and that mark jumps to 5.94, the worst in the major leagues. The White Sox are 5-4 in Fedde’s starts and 9-29 otherwise. He is one of the very few things that has gone right for the rebuilding South Siders.
Lots of analysts believe Getz should be open to dealing Fedde within the next month, rather than waiting until the July 30 trade deadline. It’s a justifiable position given the risks that come with relying on a sweeper and 93-mph sinkers. But Getz won the bidding for Fedde with a two-year, $15 million contract, and he’s still in the early days of that deal.
Getz knows it is possible he’ll be traded to a contender, and there’s always a little excitement thinking about pitching big games in September and possibly October. He missed two chances to pitch in the postseason with his original team, the Nationals, due to his health or the inconsistency that plagued him before trying a fresh approach after the 2022 season, when Washington non-tendered him.
But Fedde is still sufficiently challenged by facing major league hitters, whether with a last-place team or a contender.
“Obviously, I’m happy to be playing well,” Fedde told MLB.com's Scott Merkin. “No matter what, Getz and the White Sox took a big chance on me, and to play well is something I’m happy about. Hopefully, it shows how much work they put in on scouting me. … I want to win games here for the White Sox. Whatever happens there, happens. If I’m a trade piece, so be it. Never really been anything like that, so it will be interesting.”
Fedde has been on quite a roll since leaving Washington. He was 20-0 with a 2.00 ERA for the NC Dinos in Korea last season, striking out 209 in 180 1/3 innings. It’s a dramatic run of success that followed his commitment to conditioning and the knowledge that can be learned through the analytics studied in a pitching lab. He sold his home in Las Vegas and moved to Arizona to be close to Push and New Era in ’22 and hasn’t looked back since.
Pitchers as confident and effective as Fedde are always key pieces of their teams, which often take their loudest cues from the starting rotation. Nine of the top 12 teams currently positioned to qualify for the postseason have starting staffs ranked in the top half of MLB’s 30 teams, and the list includes eight of the 10 teams with the best rotation earned run averages.
Getz has a chance to rebuild around his starting pitchers, the way long-time GM Ken Williams did when he had Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland at the start of their careers.
Fedde, electrifying left-hander Garrett Crochet (70 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings in his first season as a big-league starter) and a couple of the prospects who started 2024 pitching well in Double-A — the list includes right-handers Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte, who were acquired from San Diego in the Dylan Cease trade, and left-handers Ky Bush and Jake Eder, who were added in trades last season — could develop into an enviable core group.
The White Sox have almost a blank slate in terms of their finances, which should help them extend Fedde, rather than simply deal him for the first good offer that comes along. With Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez able to come off the roster after this season, the Sox have only $49.6 million committed to their 2025 payroll and a total of only $83.8 million over the next three years.
Fedde is represented by Scott Boras but that doesn’t make an extension impossible. He might be interested in security over maximum earning power. Fedde was with the Nationals when Boras engineered an extension when Stephen Strasburg was only one year away from free agency.
Getz should at least explore an extension. He will have at least two other windows to trade Fedde after this season, and the longer he holds on to him the better he’ll understand the needs he wants to fill with a trade.
Fedde has nicely replaced Cease in giving White Sox fans a front-of-the-rotation arm to believe in. That’s no small thing.
Maybe Fedde would take a deal similar to the ones the Braves gave a 34-year-old Chris Sale (two years, $38 million and an option for a third year) and a 29-year-old Reynaldo Lopez (three years, $30 million and a fourth-year option). It’s a risk worth exploring.
