After a season in Korea, Erick Fedde looks like a new pitcher

For the first time in his major league career, Erick Fedde held the ball on the mound in the ninth inning. En route to a 4-2 win over the Rays and a three-game sweep, Fedde scattered seven hits and struck out nine Tampa Bay batters. And even with his pitch count at triple digits, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol gave Fedde the ball to start the ninth.

“Looking back a couple of years ago, if you told me I was striking out close to double digits and going deep in games, it would probably be a chuckle,” Fedde said. 

In his last two starts, against the Twins and Rays, Fedde has a combined 14 ⅓ innings, three runs allowed, 20 strikeouts, and no walks. He has pitched fairly well in each of his starts this season, but he points to these two most recent outings in particular as a turning point.

That turning point is a product of his year in Korea, Fedde said. He spent the 2023 season in the KBO, where he went 20-6 with a 2.30 ERA. Over there, he was able to work on developing his arsenal so that he can better hit all quadrants of the strike zone. Against Minnesota on April 23 and then against the Rays Sunday, Fedde said he felt like he saw the full fruits of his labor.

The difference wrought from his work in the KBO is “the ability to have weapons to both sides of the plate,” he said. “I saw a lineup that was strictly lefties against the Twins and I had a changeup, a sinker and a cutter and today could lean on a sweeper on a righty heavy lineup. It makes it tough for other teams to pick who they’re putting in a lineup. Can’t just stack me.”

Being able to spend a season in Korea gave him the chance to work specifically on certain pitches, he said. A luxury not easily afforded had he spent last year in the United States.

“Sometimes it’s hard to work on things in the big leagues. You’re trying to get outs and that’s what matters,” Fedde said. “Over there I could throw my changeup 25 times and figure it out, throw my sweeper 25 times. It’s tough when you get through the minors and you haven’t done that enough. Now I had a year to reset and figure it out.”

Fedde had six seasons with the Nationals before going to Korea last year but had never had much success. In Washington, he had a 5.26 ERA and a roughly 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio over those six seasons. Through five starts with the White Sox this year, he has a 2.60 ERA and 39 strikeouts to just nine walks.

Being able to hit all parts of the strike zone has been the difference between how he looked against major league hitters before going to Korea and how he looks against them thus far this season. 

“Talking about opening up all four quadrants of the zone has been really important,” Fedde said. “I’ve really worked on front hip sinkers and even pitching up and away with a four-seam every once in a while. I think it makes it tougher on the hitters. It’s really hard to cover down and up and in and out. It just gives me more weapons.”

Going into Sunday’s game, White Sox starters had an almost league-worst 5.87 ERA (ahead of only the Rockies) and had pitched the second-lowest number of innings in baseball. That has taxed a bullpen with an innings workload in the top third of the league. 

That reality played a role in Grifol’s decision to let Fedde try and finish Sunday’s start. He said that, on one hand, he wanted Fedde to get the complete game for his own sake, but Grifol also wanted the chance to let his bullpen take a much-needed day off. 

“We can’t continue to throw our bullpen the way they’ve been throwing,” Grifol said. “It’s just too early for that, and we’ve got to protect some of these guys.”

The White Sox selected Brad Keller’s contract from Triple-A Charlotte on Sunday; adding him was another move to protect the bullpen arms. Though Keller will likely join the rotation soon – Jonathan Cannon was optioned to Charlotte as a corresponding move Sunday – Grifol had Keller available in Sunday’s bullpen and said he will be available in relief in Monday’s game against the Twins as well. From there, his role will be evaluated. Keller was scheduled to start for Charlotte on Sunday and could easily slide into Cannon’s spot in the rotation when it comes up again next weekend. That may depend on Mike Clevinger’s progress, but in the short term, Grifol’s main concern is preventing overuse of his bullpen arms.

“You need roster flexibility to be able to navigate a full season, especially when you have young guys,” he said. “The veteran presence is really important. Those guys have done it before, they’ve logged the innings before. That’s really important for us, and every once in a while you run into a situation in the season where you get 3 or 4 short starts in a row where you go 4 ⅓,  5, another 4 ⅓, and all of a sudden you start taxing the bullpen, and that’s where you need your veteran guys to come in and they know what to do.

“Great starts are not only starts where guys are putting up zeroes. Great starts could be starts where guys give up 4,5 runs but are still standing out there in the seventh inning. Those starts are really important too.”

The White Sox also added Prelander Berroa to the bullpen on Sunday and designated Deivi Garcia for assignment. The pitcher shuffle will likely continue in the week to come, but if Fedde continues to pitch like he has, that will make one of the team’s decisions very easy.