Editor’s Note: During SoxFest Live 2026, the Sox On 35th crew had the chance to interview several members of the White Sox organization as part of a Podcasters’ Row event. This is one story based on their conversations at the event.
Depending on how you feel about magic – or at least magic-adjacent chaos – you might’ve been more captivated by the mentalist the White Sox brought in for SoxFest than some of the other festivities.
For those in attendance on night one, you know exactly what we’re talking about.
A mentalist pulled Miguel Vargas, Chase Meidroth, and Anthony Kay on stage and ran them through a trick where they randomly punched numbers into an iPhone calculator, only for it to somehow spit out the exact date and time of the performance.
No one could explain it. Not us. Not the crowd. Not even the players.
“For me, it was legit. I don’t know what the hell kind of bullshit he was pulling,” Kay said when we asked whether the whole thing was real. “I don’t know how he did it.”
Whether you believe that or not is certainly your call. What isn’t up for debate, though, is that the White Sox aren’t getting the same version of Kay who left the majors a couple of years ago searching for answers.
Despite whatever the mentalist tried to do to him, this new version of Kay sounds like someone who’s already found his answers. And now he’s bringing that to Chicago.
The White Sox knew what they wanted in Anthony Kay
Kay said it wasn’t just about the fact that the White Sox called him; it was the timing of that call that mattered most. The Japanese offseason works differently than the slow grind that is the Major League Baseball offseason – it’s shorter, and teams want to finalize their rosters pretty early on. The White Sox understood that and wanted to get ahead of everyone else’s conversations with Kay.
“They were one of the first teams to reach out to me at the beginning of the offseason,” he said. “They had a really strong pitch about the plan for my transition from Japan.”
For Kay, a particular part of their conversation stood out. There wasn’t just interest from Chris Getz and the organization; rather, there was a clear plan. The White Sox pointed to how they’ve helped pitchers transition back stateside before, including the recently re-signed Erick Fedde, and laid out exactly how they’d handle Kay’s move back from Japan’s seven-day pitching rotation.
When the first Zoom happened, the pitching brain trust of Brian Bannister and Zach Bove showed up. When asked what he took away most from those early conversations, he was quick to mention that the team’s belief in him as a pitcher extended beyond just the general manager: “The confidence they [Bannister and Bove] had in me really stood out.”
For a guy trying to re-establish himself, that kind of buy-in goes a long way.
“I wasn’t pitching, I was throwing.”
Kay was honest about why things didn’t click the first time around in the majors.
“The biggest problem I had when I was first here is I was a little wild. I felt like I wasn’t pitching – I was just throwing. Coming out of the bullpen was also a weird transition for me. It was one of the first times I’d had to do that, and I never really figured it out.”
That all changed in Japan, where he leaned more into a sinker that helped him focus on living in the zone. At the same time, he also stopped worrying so much about what might happen.
“Over there, I figured myself out more as a pitcher and what I want to do – being more aggressive in the strike zone and attacking hitters without worrying about hard contact. If they were going to beat me, it was going to be them beating me, not me beating myself.”
The line between a pitcher and a thrower has been oft-discussed in today’s game, because although strike-throwing will forever be important, velocity is still king. And sure, Kay was able to run his fastball up into the mid-to-upper 90s while in Japan, so he was certainly throwing harder on his way to becoming a true pitcher.
But when you look at it, it seems a simple mindset shift might’ve been key for Kay at this point.
Championship reps don’t hurt either
On top of a revitalized arsenal and a newfound confidence in his stuff, Kay also brings something this current White Sox clubhouse could use more of: recent postseason experience. He was part of a championship run overseas in 2024 with the BayStars.
What surprised him most? It didn’t feel wildly different than the rest of his starts that year.
“Those fans bring it every single night. It didn’t feel that different in terms of atmosphere. Obviously, you feel the pressure of the postseason, but the fans brought the same energy. It was a great run that we had and a lot of fun to be part of.”
While the White Sox don’t necessarily have postseason aspirations for this upcoming season, the ability to compete and embrace the pressure of a situation won’t be a bad trait to have in a clubhouse full of young arms.
Familiar faces from overseas
There’s also a fun crossover storyline waiting in Spring Training. Kay faced Munetaka Murakami plenty in Japan, and while he kept him homerless, he quickly laughed off any bragging rights.
“He hit around .400 off me, but thankfully, I kept him in the yard. That was the goal when we faced that team – don’t let him [Murakami] beat us… I just made sure not to give him anything to hit.”
Still, he’s bullish on Murakami’s transition.
“There will definitely be a transition period, but at the end of the day, it’s still baseball. People said he struggled with velocity and things like that, but he hit well off me, and I was one of the harder throwers over there … he’s a professional hitter. He’ll make whatever adjustments he needs.”
Kay is clearly speaking from experience when he talks about the importance of adjustments.
The biggest thing he brought back
When asked what changed most about him over the past two years, the answer wasn’t about mechanics or the aforementioned sinker that revitalized his arsenal.
Instead, it was about the mental side of the game.
“You just have to be confident in yourself. Going to Japan, you have to be your own pitching coach in many ways. You have to know yourself and figure out what kind of pitcher you are. That experience helped me find confidence in who I am as a pitcher, and that was probably the biggest factor in my success there.”
And now, nearly 10 years after being selected by the New York Mets in the first round of the 2016 MLB Draft, he’s back with a clearer identity than ever.
Spring Training is among us, with Kay arriving alongside the rest of the pitchers and catchers in Arizona today. Already, there have been many discussions about the “quantity” versus “quality” of the moves made by the White Sox in what was objectively a busy offseason.
To many, Anthony Kay will fall into the “quantity” category – he doesn’t represent the flashiest signing possible, or even the most notable signing by the White Sox out of Japan this offseason. But if his arsenal translates, some of the velocity he found overseas holds, and most importantly, his confidence sticks, he can quietly become an arm the team ends up relying on more than projected positively.
It’s a challenge that Kay will certainly be excited to take on.
“The goal was always to come back here, but in the back of your mind, you know it might not happen. At the end of the day, we were going to go over there and… thankfully, I was able to find my way and find myself over there, and it led me back here.”
For Kay, Japan wasn’t just a detour – it was an opportunity to put himself on the right path to big league success. Time will tell if he is, in fact, on that right path, but at the very least, the White Sox and their fans should continue the theme of belief John Schriffen mentioned. In this case, it’s the belief in Kay’s newfound confidence and an improvement in stuff to match it.
… and I’m sure it’ll help that Kay and Murakami are in the same dugout this time.
Some more fun from the interview
As always, we ended our interview with some rapid-fire questions:
- If Kay were given the opportunity to fly into space, he’d do it on one condition: “Am I guaranteed to come back? If I’m definitely coming back, then why not? You’d see some wild stuff out there. I would do it.”
- There are, of course, differences between Japanese and American culture. Kay found an appreciation for Japanese cuisine while spending two years overseas; in particular, he loved restaurants called Yakiniku. Here, you are allowed to cook the food yourself – he and his wife would go about twice a week.
- When it comes to the differences between Japanese and Major League Baseball, Kay pointed out some of the uniqueness in how starting pitchers spend time with the team: “There are some different aspects of baseball there, where as a starting pitcher, you don’t attend every game, so I wasn’t in the dugout regularly. Just being able to talk with the boys, hang out, and be around everyone was probably what I missed most [about baseball in the United States].”
- As for a particular person he might’ve missed, he called out current Athletics pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. as the best “clubhouse vibes” guy he has ever been around: “That guy brought the vibes every day.”
We want to thank Anthony for taking the time for us during the busy SoxFest Live weekend, and as pitchers and catchers report today, we certainly wish him the best of luck throughout this season on the South Side!
Follow us @SoxOn35th for more throughout the offseason!