The White Sox are moving Erick Fedde to the bullpen following their acquisition of Luis Castillo from Seattle. Manager Will Venable announced the decision on Sunday afternoon, noting that Fedde will stay stretched out as a multi-inning reliever (link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com).
For the time being, that keeps rookie left-hander Noah Schultz in the starting five. That’s not guaranteed to continue through Monday evening’s trade deadline. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the White Sox are open to acquiring another starter even after the Castillo trade.
The Sox have been tied to Reid Detmers, Clay Holmes and Shane Bieber — all of whom remain available. Russell Dorsey of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier this week that the Sox had shown interest in Orioles left-hander Trevor Rogers as well. It seems they’re poking around on both rentals and players who are under club control beyond this season. This weekend’s trade demonstrates they have some financial flexibility. They took on a little over $5MM this year and an extra $10.75MM for 2027 in the difference between Castillo’s contract and the Seranthony Domínguez deal they shipped to Seattle.
Fedde signed a $1.5MM free agent contract just before the start of Spring Training. He has essentially held a rotation spot all year despite technically only having 12 starts, as he has frequently pitched bulk innings behind an opener. He’s having a decent season overall, working to a 4.13 ERA across 102 1/3 frames.
It’s not the most exciting profile, though, as Fedde has a modest 16.7% strikeout rate and has surrendered a team-high 20 home runs. Estimators like SIERA (4.67), FIP (5.34) and xERA (4.61) all point to him performing like a sixth starter/swingman even as he’s done a solid job preventing runs outside of a terrible May.
It still comes as somewhat surprising that Fedde was bumped from the rotation before Schultz, a top prospect who has looked overmatched as a rookie. Schultz has an ERA near 6.00 over his first 14 big league appearances. He has much bigger raw stuff than Fedde provides, but he hasn’t been efficient enough to find much success. He’s walking close to 11% of opponents and has plunked another 2.4% of them. Schultz missed all of June with patellar tendinitis in his right knee and hasn’t completed six innings in a start since May 1.
Schultz is also approaching a new career-high workload. He has combined for 88 innings between Triple-A and his first look in the big leagues. The 2022 first-round pick hasn’t thrown more than 88 1/3 frames in a minor league season, partially because of a flexor strain that limited him to 10 starts in his first full year as a professional.
Adding another starter would allow the Sox to either use Schultz in relief or option him back to Triple-A Charlotte. That wouldn’t close the door on his long-term future as a starter. Schultz is still a work in progress, as one would expect for a 22-year-old with a 6’10” frame that’s certainly not easy to sync up in his delivery. The Sox just happen to be ahead of schedule as contenders, sitting 59-52 with a three-game advantage in the AL Central. They’re two games above the AL West-leading Astros for a potential first-round bye.
The Sox should expect to make the playoffs at this point. They’re not going to deal from the top of the farm system for rentals, but that’s not really on the table for any impending free agent this summer — aside from Tarik Skubal, who was never realistic for Chicago. A controllable arm like Detmers or José Soriano would align with the broader competitive window. They probably didn’t expect to be in the market for rentals like Rogers, Holmes or Dustin May, but they can afford to part with some mid-level prospect capital to try to make a surprise run in a down year for the American League.
Sean Burke should win the AL’s Pitcher of the Month award for July. He has been fantastic for two months and would line up as Chicago’s Game 1 starter in a playoff series. Castillo and Davis Martin would presumably follow in some order with Anthony Kay lined up for a potential Game 4. Castillo is having a middling season and Martin has pitched quite poorly since the beginning of June, so another playoff-caliber arm would be welcome. The Sox also figure to add a short-term depth catcher and ideally a right-handed leverage reliever (update: they got their righty reliever) in the next 17 hours.
