White Sox promote one of their top pitching prospects

The White Sox announced that left-hander Jake Eder will be their 27th player for Wednesday’s double-header against the Twins. He was already on the 40-man roster but will make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Eder, 25, was a fourth-round pick of the Marlins in 2020. He was quickly sent to Double-A in 2021 and made 15 strong starts there with a 1.77 earned run average, 34.5% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in August of that year, which forced him to miss the remainder of that season and all of 2022.

He returned to the mound in 2023 but was traded to the White Sox at that year’s deadline, going in a straight one-for-one deal with Jake Burger going the other way. He seemed to struggle with his control when returning to the mound. He tossed 56 2/3 innings last year between the two organizations with a 6.35 ERA. His 26.2% strikeout rate was still strong, but he gave out walks to 13.5% of batters faced. The free passes continued to be an issue in the Arizona Fall League, as he walked 15 opponents in 17 2/3 innings there.

Nonetheless, he remained a significant part of the future plans for the White Sox. He was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Now further removed from his surgery, the control seems to be coming back to him. He has made 15 Double-A starts this year with a 9.3% walk rate and 25.9% strikeout rate. The 5.09 ERA isn’t pretty, but a .368 batting average on balls in play possibly inflates that, which is why his FIP is 3.82.

This may be just a one-day stint for Eder, with the club needing an extra arm for the twin bill. James Fegan of Sox Machine suggests on X that Eder could be bumped to Triple-A after today, a level he has not yet pitched at. But it seems the Sox are fairly committed to having him make his major league debut before the day is done. Per Vinnie Duber of CHGO Sports on X, manager Pedro Grifol said there’s “a good chance” he’ll call on Eder at some point. “If I get the opportunity to put him in, I’m putting him in there. I’m not going to hesitate at all. I have confidence in him, we all do. That’s why he’s here. It’ll be nice to see him. He’s a big part of the future.”

The Sox have a fairly wide-open rotation, with Garrett Crochet and Erick perhaps slated to be traded elsewhere in the coming weeks, while Chris Flexen and Mike Clevinger are impending free agents. Eder is in the mix for future starting roles alongside guys like Drew Thorpe, Jonathan Cannon, Nick Nastrini, Jared Shuster, Jesse Scholtens, Davis Martin and others, with deadline deals likely to add more names. How that plays out remains to be seen, but Eder will seemingly get a little taste of the majors on Wednesday.