Left-hander Anthony Kay and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a two-year, $12 million contract with a club option for a third season, sources told ESPN on Wednesday, bringing the veteran back to Major League Baseball after a successful two-year run in Japan.
Kay, 30, posted a 1.74 ERA over 155 innings for the Yokohama Bay Stars this year, featuring a new cutter, an improved changeup and a fastball that still sits at 95 mph years after he was one of the game’s best pitching prospects.
The White Sox are aiming to replicate their success with domestic pitchers returning from Asia two years after signing Erick Fedde to a two-year, $15 million deal.
Kay’s deal will pay him $5 million each of the next two seasons and includes a $10 million club option for 2028 with a $2 million buyout, sources said. He can earn another $1.5 million in incentives.
He will slot into a White Sox rotation that includes young right-handers Shane Smith, Davis Martin and Sean Burke. Chicago used 18 starters this year, when it went 60-102 — a 19-game improvement over 2024, when the White Sox set a major league record with 121 losses.
Kay’s return comes after a five-year major league career in which he posted a 5.67 ERA in 85⅔ innings with the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, who took him in the first round of the 2016 draft out of UConn. Kay cruised through the minor leagues and was dealt to the Blue Jays along with Simeon Woods Richardson for Marcus Stroman at the 2019 trade deadline.
Following a return to the Mets in 2023, Kay departed for Yokohama, where he threw 136⅔ innings of 3.42 ERA ball in his first season.
While Nippon Professional Baseball features a depressed offensive environment, Kay still ranked fifth in the league this year in ERA and allowed only eight home runs in 155 innings while striking out 130 and walking 41.
