Austin Voth returned from Japan on a minor league deal, and now he's got his sights on a starting rotation spot with the Chicago White Sox.
Last week, I previewed the profile of right-handed pitcher Austin Voth — one of the newer additions for the Chicago White Sox on a minor league deal just before the start of spring training.
Voth last pitched in Major League Baseball in 2024 as a bullpen piece for the Seattle Mariners. He was actually rather successful that season, posting a 3.69 ERA over 68 appearances.
It was one of the more productive stretches of his seven-year big league career. But it still wasn’t good enough to get him the opportunity he coveted in 2025.
Voth instead spent the 2025 season pitching professionally in Japan. He suited up for the Chiba Lotte Marines after converting back to a starting pitcher and had a 3.96 ERA over 125 innings pitched.
Those numbers are nothing special. And of course, that’s part of why he wasn’t able to land a major league contract with a team in the United States.
Instead, his return to the U.S. comes on a minor league deal with Chicago.
I'm, at the very least, intrigued by the profile. During Voth’s last stint in Major League Baseball, he ranked in the 98th percentile in average exit velocity allowed and the 99th percentile in hard-hit percentage. Combine that with his 3.34 expected ERA, and it’s clear his productivity out of the Mariners bullpen wasn’t just batted-ball luck.
He started throwing his four-seam fastball less and his cutter more. And with that change came the ability to generate soft contact.
It may not be the type of profile that sticks in a bullpen over time, especially not at 33 years old. But maybe that’s why the White Sox see potential to get value out of Voth as a starting pitching option, even if the numbers in Japan don’t jump off the page.
According to James Fegan of SoxMachine, who spoke to Voth from spring training at Camelback Ranch, Voth signed with the White Sox specifically for the opportunity to compete for a spot in the starting rotation.
“I talked to him today,” Fegan said of Voth. “He wants to start. He went to the NPB just so he could start last year. And the reason he came back and signed with this team is because he said, ‘they told me there’s an opportunity to start.’”
For this team, this year, that’s a lot easier said than done. The White Sox have up to 10, if not more, candidates for the starting rotation who are being stretched out and given an opportunity to compete in spring training.
Can Voth be one who makes the cut? I’d bet against it, but it’s certainly possible. One thing about this White Sox starting rotation is that there’s very little set in stone, especially at the back half.
The easy, on-paper five is Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Anthony Kay, Sean Burke, and Erick Fedde. But if somebody like Voth significantly outperforms Burke or Fedde in spring training, there’s always a chance the White Sox keep him on the roster while pushing one of the other options to the minor leagues.
That goes for all of the arms vying for those final spots.
But what this also does is complicate the depth for Chicago throughout the minors.
Let’s assume it is the starting five I projected earlier. Let’s even say that Mike Vasil and Sean Newcomb — two relief pitchers who are stretching out and competing for a starting rotation spot in camp — both settle back into the big league bullpen.
What does the rotation look like in Triple-A Charlotte?
You’ve got Voth, Jonathan Cannon, Noah Schultz, Tanner McDougal, Duncan Davitt, David Sandlin, Shane Murphy, and Hagen Smith all falling short of the big league roster. That’s eight starting pitchers who would intuitively be placed in Triple-A — and that doesn’t even account for the returns of Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, and Mason Adams whenever they get healthy while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Who sticks at Triple-A? Who goes to Double-A? Do any of these guys get converted to relievers?
It’s a smart play for the White Sox to have this much depth in the organization, and time will tell if Chicago’s player development staff is able to extract anything from Voth worth trying at the MLB level.
But for me, adding him to the mix of starting pitchers who are competing gets the wheels turning about where all of these guys will settle when rosters get finalized. And it makes every spring training outing worth checking out.