MLB trade deadline: Erick Fedde traded to Cardinals in three-team deal involving Dodgers, White Sox

Erick Fedde’s baseball career took him from South Korea to the South Side of Chicago. Now the right-hander is headed to St. Louis.

The Cardinals acquired Fedde from the Chicago White Sox in a three-team trade Monday, striking a deal just before the trade deadline for one of the top pitchers on the market and one of two big arms on the White Sox, alongside left-hander Garret Crochet.

Also in this deal, the Dodgers will acquire INF/OF Tommy Edman, and the White Sox will receive prospects, sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports.

The deal is more than a rental, as Fedde has another year left on the two-year, $15 million contract he signed with the White Sox last offseason. Since joining Chicago, he has enjoyed the best season of his career by far, posting a 3.11 ERA with 108 strikeouts in 121 2/3 innings across 21 starts.

While Chicago has been the worst team in MLB this season, Crochet and Fedde were among the league's best starting-pitcher tandems. To get there, Crochet had to overcome the injury struggles that plagued his young career, while Fedde had to take a circuitous path to become a trade deadline prize.

Erick Fedde's career changed in South Korea

Rewind to about a year and a half ago, and Fedde's MLB career looked to be on the verge of ending.

The Washington Nationals, who drafted Fedde with the 18th overall pick of the 2014 MLB Draft, cut him loose after another ineffective season. He posted a 5.81 ERA in 2022, the second-worst mark in the majors (min. 100 innings pitched) behind only teammate Patrick Corbin. That season was a dark time for the Nationals, and Fedde was a significant reason for that.

As he reached free agency, Fedde held a career 5.41 ERA and was set to turn 30 before the next season. He at least had a World Series ring to show for his time in the nation's capital, but he hadn't actually pitched in the 2019 postseason.

Rather than join a new MLB team on a minor-league deal, Fedde moved to a different hemisphere. He signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the NC Dinos in Changwon, South Korea, taking a route often used by once-promising pitchers struggling to stick in MLB.

The results in Korea were astonishing, even when accounting for the different talent level. Fedde posted, quite simply, the best season ever seen in the KBO by a foreign pitcher and one of the best ever overall.

He led the league in wins with a 20-6 record. He led the league in strikeouts with 209 in 180 1/3 innings. He led the league in ERA with a 2.00 mark. Add all that up, and yes, he won the KBO's pitching triple crown, earning him league MVP honors and the Choi Dong-won Award, the Korean equivalent of the Cy Young Award. He even took home a Gold Glove for good measure.

Fedde did it all with a revamped pitching arsenal, most notably introducing a sweeper and revamping his changeup into a split-fingered variant.

All of that success piqued MLB's interest only a year after its 30 teams had little to no interest in Fedde. The White Sox, sensing a potential bargain, landed him on a two-year deal. It didn't help them become anything close to a playoff team, but it did end up netting them some precious prospects as they dive into another rebuilding cycle.