White Sox’ Anthony Kay looks to continue success from Japan
GLENDALE, Ariz. — It has been a winding road for new White Sox starting pitcher Anthony Kay the last several years.
Designated for assignment by the Cubs in 2023, a move to Japan, where he developed a new pitch and excelled, and now a return to the U.S. on a two-year, $12 million deal with the other Chicago team.
“He looks good,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “Just want to get him comfortable and make sure he’s on the same page as the pitching coaches, he’s building up appropriately, healthy first and foremost and support him to go out and do his thing and have a great year.”
Kay’s biggest setback has been his ability to stay on the mound. He underwent Tommy John surgery soon after the Mets drafted him in the first round in 2016. Then other injuries kept nagging him — back and side discomfort, shoulder discomfort, a blister.
It led to him fielding only minor-league deals from teams after the 2022 season, but he was hoping to pitch in the big leagues. His agent floated the idea of pitching in Japan, so he made the “no-brainer” decision to move overseas in 2023.
That’s when he bounced back with the
Yokohama Bay Stars, posting a 3.42 ERA in his first season. He followed that up with a 1.54 ERA the next season and then finished with a 1.74 ERA last year, good for second best in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, where he crossed paths with new Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami (who hit .400 off Kay but no home runs).
“Kind of just finding a good routine in between each start and making sure that my body is right for the next one was the biggest thing that I learned in Japan,” Kay said.
After that success, Kay finds himself with a spot in the Sox rotation, which is searching for consistent starters. Last year’s All-Star Shane Smith and the team’s longest tenured player Davis Martin, are the only other two who have secured a starting role.
Kay has already talked with teammate Erick Fedde, who took a similar career path when he pitched in Korea and returned in 2024 and provided one of the few bright spots that season for the Sox.
“Just seeing the guys before us have success [overseas] and then came back and had more success, that was huge,” Kay said.
The 30-year-old left-hander is using this spring training to readjust back to facing MLB hitters. He added a sinker to his arsenal while in Japan, alongside a four-seam fastball, slider, sweeper and a sporadic changeup.
Hitters in Japan tend to have more flat swings, he noted, making it easier for them to catch up to high fastballs, which led to the development of his sinker.
“I was sitting behind his bullpen the other day and it’s really, really electric stuff,” catcher Korey Lee said. “[He] knows how to pinpoint some pitches, kind of more of that pitchability type of guy and knows where he’s going to throw it rather than that overpowering stuff. He’s still throwing really, really hard but at the end of the day, it’s more about the location for him rather than the velo and the stuff, and that plays on the team really, really well.”
The Sox showed great interest in Kay once he indicated a return to the MLB, but Kay said he settled with the Sox because, “You see the plan that they have for everyone.”
“You see the future and you see all the exciting young talent that all these guys have, and I think it’s a fun time to be part of this organization,” he said. “And I think [we’re] definitely going to either shock some people and I think this team is going to make some noise.”