Chicago White Sox pitcher Erick Fedde returns to majors after stint in Korean league
GLENDALE, Ariz. (CBS) – As the White Sox continue Spring Training in Arizona, the team's starting rotation is set to look a little different this season.
The South Side will be a big change of scenery for new White Sox pitcher Erick Fedde, who is preparing for his second stint in the big leagues after playing for a season overseas.
When the Washington Nationals let Fedde, a former first round pick, go after the 2022 season, he bounced back with the best season of his professional career. It just happened to come overseas in Korea.
"I think a big decision of it was knowing that I could go there and get the ball there every fifth day a chance to prove I could throw 175-plus inning when I hadn't done that here," Fedde said. "To me it was maybe get stuck in Triple A and bounce around or go somewhere where I had one team and one spot."
Fedde turned that spot into winning KBO's version of the Cy Young Award and a two-year, $15 million deal with the White Sox.
"I say over there, it gave me a chance to remember the fire I maybe had in college where you got to be like the big horse," he said. "Every time you got the ball, they expected 100 pitches and seven innings, and it relit that fire in me that a team was depending on me to another level and reminded me of who I should be."
Now, he's got a stop near the top of the Sox rotation and some re-adjusting to do now that he's back stateside.
"The biggest adjustment will be making to [to] stay away from power," he said. "Over there, they're willing to his and run and bunt a lot more, where here, your seven, eight, nine guys might be trying to take you out of the ballpark. So I think it's just about focusing on making sure I execute pitches to where I keep the ball in the park."
Manager Pedro Grifol said, "He executed the endurance and the stamina needed to throw that many innings in a league that's pretty tough."
One of the keys to Fedde's success abroad last season was sweeping change, literally. He altered the grip on his curveball. His horizontal pitch became a side-to-side sweeper, what he called a devastating pitch.