White Sox Make First Free Agent Signing of the Offseason

The Chicago White Sox have made their first free agent addition of the offseason. Earlier this week, Chicago agreed to terms on a minor league contract with right-handed pitcher Alec Marsh.

Marsh is 28 years old and was previously a second-round draft pick by the Kansas City Royals in the 2019 MLB Draft. During the early stages of his career, Marsh was a prospect with some real upside in the Royals system, and he's had some productive moments at the MLB level since. But injuries have hindered him over the last two seasons.

Back in 2021, Marsh was the No. 12-ranked prospect in Kansas City's farm system. By 2023, he had debuted for the big league club and posted a 5.69 ERA while splitting time between a starting role and the bullpen.

2024 was his main season in Major League Baseball. Marsh was a member of Kansas City's starting rotation and made 25 starts throughout the season, pitching 129 innings. He finished 9–9 with a 4.53 ERA but had some really productive stretches, including a start to the season in which he had a 3.24 ERA at the end of May, while Kansas City had gone 7–2 in the nine games he pitched.

Marsh then missed spring training in 2025 with a right shoulder injury and proceeded to have multiple setbacks during extended spring training in the weeks that followed.

He was in line to help Kansas City at the MLB level but ended up missing the entire 2025 season with that injury. In October of 2025, he underwent labrum surgery that shut him down for all of 2026 as well.

Now he joins the White Sox organization, and it's unclear what kind of limitations he comes with. But the minor league contract includes an invitation to spring training, where Marsh will fight for a roster spot and hope to serve as rotation depth for a White Sox organization that is looking to revamp its pitching staff.

Marsh's best pitch is probably his slider, which is his primary off-speed offering and registered a 29.4% whiff rate in 2024. A separate pitch classified as his sweeper was thrown five percent of the time by Marsh and was even better, with a 46.4% whiff rate.

The White Sox should be looking to make multiple additions to the starting rotation this winter, not including the addition of Marsh to the organization. But it's an intriguing depth addition after we saw what played out for the White Sox in 2026. They simply didn't have enough innings with all of the young pitching in the organization.

So while it's been two years since Marsh last took the mound, there was plenty to like about his 2024 season, and the White Sox have seen him up close. He's 1–0 with a 3.68 ERA over 14.2 career innings pitched against the White Sox. Not to mention, White Sox pitching coach Zach Bove served as an assistant pitching coach in Kansas City from 2023–2025, while Marsh was with the team.

This was a calculated signing by Chicago that should be the first of many pitching additions we see in the month of November.