CHICAGO -- The White Sox followed a somewhat familiar path to enhance their starting rotation with the addition of left-hander Anthony Kay via a two-year, $12 million deal, which includes a mutual option for 2028. Chicago announced the agreement on Tuesday.
Kay, 30, spent the past two seasons pitching for the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan, and he had a 1.74 ERA with 130 strikeouts and 41 walks over 155 innings in 2025. In the offseason prior to the 2024 season, the White Sox added Erick Fedde via a two-year, $15 million deal after Fedde had rejuvenated his career via one stellar campaign with the NC Dinos in Korea.
Fedde posted a 7-4 record with a 3.11 ERA over 21 starts during the 2024 season for Chicago before he was traded to the Cardinals in a three-team deal at the Trade Deadline. The White Sox received Miguel Vargas and Minor Leaguers Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus in return.
That success for Fedde was one of the contributing factors for Kay joining the White Sox, as he mentioned during a Tuesday morning Zoom call.
“It was a pretty similar situation to come back over and thrive in the role of being back in the big leagues,” Kay said. “Another thing is the success they had with Garrett Crochet and having him go from a reliever back to starter. That kind of showed they have a plan for guys like me and it really showed that the success they have had was a huge part of it.
“I had a Zoom call with a bunch of the pitching guys and coordinators and with [manager] Will Venable. It seemed like a really good fit for me to come back to America and kind of get back into the big leagues and I think we had a pretty similar vision of what I wanted to do.”
A source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand that Kay had more lucrative offers to keep pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball, but the southpaw opted to return to MLB. Kay acknowledged Tuesday he could have stayed, but his original goal upon going to Japan was getting back to the Major Leagues after two years.
After the native of Stony Brook, N.Y., Kay was selected by the Mets out of the University of Connecticut with the 31st overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, he was traded to Toronto alongside Simeon Woods Richardson for Marcus Stroman in ’19. Kay recorded a 5.59 ERA for the Blue Jays, Cubs and Mets from 2019-23, and he briefly spent time in the Athletics' organization before electing free agency when he was outrighted off the A's 40-man roster. He signed with Yokohama in January 2024.
His shared vision with the White Sox centers upon returning to the starting rotation, where he made seven of his previous 44 career appearances in the big leagues. Adding a sinker and being more aggressive attacking the zone made a difference for Kay in Japan, but he also solved a bit of a crisis of mound confidence.
“Being up and down and DFA'd and all that, I think going over to Japan and being consistently a starter for a couple of years kind of helped me regain that confidence as a pitcher,” Kay said. “It kind of helped me develop and be consistent and find myself.”
Pitching in the Japan Central League, as Kay did, is considered a higher level of competition than the KBO. Kay’s White Sox deal will pay him $5 million in 2026 and ‘27, with a $2 million buyout on a $10 million mutual option for ‘28.
A strong, young rotation already is in place for Chicago, with All-Star Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon firmly in the mix and expected to get a workload boost after their 2025 efforts. Drew Thorpe is expected to return in '26 as well, once he completes his comeback from Tommy John surgery.
Left-handers Noah Schultz -- the White Sox No. 2 prospect and No. 40 overall, per MLB Pipeline -- and Hagen Smith (No. 5, No. 88) will figure into Chicago's rotation at some point in 2026. But the team lost valuable innings contributed by veterans such as Martín Pérez, Adrian Houser and Aaron Civale, and Kay gives the club quite a bit of upside to fill that void.
Look for the White Sox to add another starter to the mix, as well as a late-inning leverage presence or two.