ORLANDO, Fla. — Anthony Kay knew he had a limit for how much time he wanted to be overseas. From the moment he signed to pitch in Nippon Professional Baseball, he knew he wanted to return to the States.
Kay, who signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the White Sox that features a mutual option for 2028, had ambitions of reinventing himself. But he didn’t find instant success.
‘‘I really wanted to pitch like I was in America, get a lot of strikeouts and all that,’’ Kay said Tuesday. ‘‘I struggled a little bit my first year over there just giving up a lot of free walks. Once I kind of realized I had to be a little bit more aggressive and attack the zone [in] my second year, that’s why I had the year that I had.
‘‘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 and kind of helped me develop and be consistent and find myself.’’
Kay lowered his ERA from 3.28 in 2024 to 1.74 last season after adding a sinker that helped him rein in his control issues, which plagued him during his first stint in the majors. He credited his time in Japan for helping him find the zone and limit walks.
He’ll adapt those lessons to what he hopes will be a more successful go-around in the big leagues. Kay picked the Sox partly because of their success in recent years of helping pitchers returning from overseas (Erick Fedde) and switching from relievers to starters (Garrett Crochet).
‘‘I had a Zoom call with a bunch of the pitching guys and coordinators and with [manager] Will Venable,’’ Kay said. ‘‘It seemed like a really good fit for me to come back to America and get back into the big leagues. I think we had a pretty similar vision of what I wanted to do, and it was a really good fit.’’
Prospects moving to rotation
The Sox don’t envision moving any of their starting-pitching prospects (Tanner McDougal, Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith) to the bullpen.
‘‘At this point, we’re focused on stretching them out as starters,’’ general manager Chris Getz said. ‘‘I think as the season evolves, you become a little bit more open-minded in how you’re going to utilize these arms. Most important, you look at the bulk innings. You look at Mike Vasil last year, a guy that actually took some starts. He had one-inning outings, but he also had a lot of three- [and] four-inning outings, as well. That really helped us.
‘‘There’s an opportunity at some point maybe to have those conversations with some of those guys. I want those guys going into spring training fighting for a starting position.’’
40-man flexibility
The Sox have 35 players on their 40-man roster entering the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday. Getz said that was by design.
‘‘I wanted to be flexible,’’ he said. ‘‘When you’re making a decision whether to protect someone, player evaluation comes first, but [there’s] also the probability a player is going to be able to stick on a major-league club.’’
Last year, the Sox selected right-hander Shane Smith from the Brewers with the first pick in the Rule 5 Draft. He went on to become their only All-Star.
The order is based on the reverse order of the MLB standings. The Sox will pick second, after the Rockies. Players drafted must stay on a team’s active big-league roster for the 2026 season. They can’t be sent to the minors without clearing waivers and being offered back to their original club.
