The White Sox have added to their potential rotation depth, signing right-hander Bryse Wilson to a one-year, $1.05M deal with the opportunity to compete for a rotation spot in the spring. The deal does include some potential performance bonuses of up to $250K.
Wilson, 26, is a former fourth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves back in 2016. He’s made two postseason appearances in his career, the best one being in 2020 when he threw six innings in his only postseason start.
Wilson has spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, going 11-4 with a 3.42 ERA over 181.1 innings between both the rotation (six games started) and bullpen (78 appearances). While he will be getting a shot at the rotation, it’s worth noting that his best season on paper came in 2023 with the Brewers as a full-time reliever (2.58 ERA, 19.4 K%, 7.0 BB%). He does limit the walks, which has shown to be a priority for the White Sox in some of their smaller free-agent signings for the rotation the past two years.
Wilson has always had a pitch-to-contact profile, striking out just 17.1% of hitters throughout his career. Last season, his primary pitch was his cutter (34.2%), followed by a sinker (32%), 4-seamer (15%), curveball (13.9%), and changeup (4.2%). He has struggled with home runs at times, and he posted one of the highest HR/FB rates of his career (14.4%) last season, so it will be something that the White Sox will hope to alter in what is a hitter’s ballpark at Rate Field.
It’s also possible that they could change his pitch mix a bit or at least his pitch shapes – if you look at someone like Erick Fedde, they are incredibly similar:
- Fedde 2024: Cutter (32.3%), Sinker (30.8%), Sweeper (20.2%), Changeup (16.4%), 4-Seamer (0.3%)
- Wilson 2024: Cutter (34.2%), Sinker (32%), 4-Seamer (15%), Curveball (13.9%), Changeup (4.2%)
Perhaps limit his fastball usage, change his curveball shape more to a sweeper (very similar to how it looked in 2020, shown below), and change the shape of his cutter and sinker as necessary? I could be reaching, but it’s a general profile that the White Sox have had recent success with in Fedde, and could be a reason why they targeted him in the first place.
Regardless, Wilson is likely to fill the role of players like Chris Flexen last season – with so many young players expected to contribute for the White Sox, there are going to need to be veterans who fill in and eat up innings. Hopefully, Wilson will be able to capture some of his spurts of success from previous seasons in whatever role he winds up filling.
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Featured Image: Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports
