It’s not Jake Eder’s fault he was traded for a fan favorite. But that is the reality the White Sox No. 5 prospect will have to live with as he tries to justify Kenny Williams’s decision to trade Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins.
Not only does Eder have an opportunity to crack the big league roster, but he is also going to have a chance to play a significant role in the White Sox starting rotation in 2024.
The White Sox’s rotation is thin heading into next season. Dylan Cease and Micheal Kopech are currently the only two starters penciled into the rotation with Mike Clevinger likely to opt out of his mutual option. Meanwhile, White Sox general manager told the Chicago Sun-Times that Eder is “not far off”.
Eder hasn’t logged many innings in the last several years. He was once considered the best pitching prospect in baseball before Tommy John surgery knocked him out of the entire 2022 season. A fractured left foot then kept him off the mound until June this season. Eder is using the Arizona Fall League as an opportunity to make up for lost time.
The 25-year-old has been pleased with his work in the AFL even if his stats don’t jump off the box score. On Monday Eder earned a win after allowing four runs on six hits in four innings of work. Three of those runs came in the first inning. However, Eder retired the final eight batters he faced, with half of those outs coming via the strikeout. His late surge left him with a positive feeling leaving the stadium.
“Even in this situation, I’m still looking to compete,” Eder told MLB.com when asked about pitching in the AFL. “At the same time, I’m working on a couple of things. You never want that to happen right off the bat, but I was excited about how I made an adjustment and had some things click and felt really good in those last two innings.”
Eder was able to generate two of those strikeouts with the fastball and the other two with a sharp-looking slider. Eder credited the strong finish to his outing to an adjustment he made mechanically in his lower half.
“For it to come together and click in a game scenario, that was cool. I was excited about that,” Eder said.
Given his large 6’4” frame, the ability to engage his lower half has led to an increased spin efficiency for his fastball. The increased spin has improved the amount of ride it has up in the zone. Eder’s fastball currently sits around 93 mph but he has touched 98 mph before. The increased spin could turn it into an elite setup pitch to play his slider and change up off of. With the added ride, his fastball is on the same plane as his slider which makes it even more deceptive.
Eder has been working closely with Glendale’s pitching coach Dave Anderson. This allows Eder to get a fresh set of eyes on him. Anderson comes from the Dodgers organization, which has a good track record of developing pitchers.
This comes after the White Sox sent him to a pitcher/catcher camp in the middle of the season so the organization could dissect his delivery and identify any mechanical flaws that led to some of his struggles in the minor leagues since the trade.
Eder has drawn some comparisons to Garett Crockett. A tall, hard-throwing, left-hander, who at times struggles with command. During an outing against Peoria on October 16th, Eder threw just 29 of his 55 pitches for strikes.
In his last outing, Eder also did not issue a walk, which was a major box checked off for a guy who allowed 15 free passes in 17.1 innings in Double-A Birmingham this year. That translated over to the AFL as Eder walked eight guys in his first 8 ⅓ innings with the Desert Dogs. A no-walk performance in his last start was a step in the right direction.
“Nobody wants to walk guys, that’s just free bases and not competitive,” Eder told MLB.com. That’s a good result but at the end of the day, that’s not my focus. The focus is making the mechanics repeatable, making everything consistent, then the walks and all that stuff will take care of itself.”
White Sox fans are probably not thrilled with hearing about a pitching prospect slowly improving when the guy he was traded for hit 34 home runs last season and was under team control through 2028. Eder is going to receive scrutiny no matter what he does as long as Burger continues to grow as a hitter.
But like it or not, Eder’s development is going to have a direct impact on the White Sox next season. If he continues to check off boxes, he can help change the narrative.
“He’s very intelligent. Getz told the Chicago Sun-Times. He’s going to find it. It’s a matter of time.”
