Former Mets First-Round Pick Returns From Japan To Sign With White Sox

Many New York Mets fans won’t remember left-handed pitcher Anthony Kay, but back in 2016 Kay was the Mets’ first-round draft pick. He struggled early in his career, and Kay ended up rehabbing his reputation by going to Japan, and now he’s signing a two-year $12 million deal with the Chicago White Sox.

It’s yet another example of how quirky the pitching market can be. Usually the geography is the other way around, with Japanese pitchers posting and coming to the US to pitch in MLB, as evidenced by the intense interest in current free agents like Tatsuya Imai and Masahiro Tanaka.

Kay’s signing was reported by multiple outlets, and Will Sammon of The Athletic did a nice breakdown on him. Kay spent the last two years pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. He’s now 30, and Kay was a starter in Japan, throwing over 145 innings in each of the last two seasons.

That level of reliability will get attention in MLB, and Kay is projected to slot in the middle of a White Sox rotation that includes right-handers Shane Smith, Davis Martin and Sean Burke. There are no household names there, obviously, so it makes sense for a team like the White Sox to look abroad for additions like Kay to fill out their rotation.

The White Sox have done this sort of thing before. Last time it was Erick Fredde, who was signed to a two-year, $15 million deal ahead of the 2024 season, and Fredde was later flipped in a deal for third baseman Miguel Vargas and a pair of minor-league infielders.

Kay projects higher up the pitching food chain. He had a 2.53 ERA in Japan, with a 20.9 strike out rate and an impressive 54.5 percent ground ball rate. The key to this improvement is the sinker he’s added, which impressed major league scouts.

Kay definitely didn’t impress Mets fans, regardless of how high he was picked. He posted a 5.59 ERA while pitching for the Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs, with seven starts in 44 appearances. The Mets eventually traded him to Toronto along with pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson in the deal that brought back Marcus Stroman.

Kay would be a remarkable success story if he does make it with the White Sox, and his story is evidence of just how far teams are willing to go, both literally and figuratively, to find pitching.