All great moves but the best move by Kenny Williams so far this off season happened today.
Today the Chicago White Sox bought out Jermaine Dye's mutual option for around a million dollars making the 35 year old veteran right fielder a free agent. The 2005 World Series MVP batted .250 last season with 27 home runs and 81 RBI. A moderately productive for a guy who baseball considered finished after shattering his leg in the 2001 ALDS hitting a foul ball. Dye worked hard and found success again after Kenny Williams took a flyer on him in 2005 and thus turned his career around winning a world series MVP.
Jermaine Dye was a great replacement player after the Chicago White Sox did not want to pay Magglio Ordonez. I will admit it, I hated the fact that my team did not want to pony up the money for Maggs. In the end however, the White Sox did not need him and they found someone to take his place at a much cheaper rate with better production.
Thus with time comes change, and I've felt for the last two seasons the White Sox were still gripping onto that 2005 magic. With aging veterans like Paul Konerko, AJ Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Joe Crede, Jose Contreras...the White Sox had to let go of that magical season of triumph. Finally cutting ties with Crede last off season was a start and now there are only five remaining members of that 2005 team left on the roster barring the Sox sign Bobby Jenks this off season.
I have been very critical of Kenny Williams as most White Sox fans have been the last couple of seasons and I feel Kenny Williams made a mistake by not building off the 2005 team and being more successful in a weak division. However, so far I am a big fan of what he has done although I still believe the top priority of this off season is still to get Bobby Jenks signed long term. I hope Kenny will use some of that money saved by trading (the now World Champion) Nick Swisher, Jose Contreras, and Javier Vazquez to find someway of getting Big Bad Bobby to stay a White Sox for seasons to come.
The White Sox tried to win and "rebuild" (I know how KW hates that word) on the fly last season. For a little while it actually was working, however it finally caught up to them when youth and inexperience met the American League East and the Twins turned back into the Twins all White Sox fans are familiar with. They tried and failed but the good part about it is the White Sox saved money, upgraded their roster and at the same time moved on from 2005 even more.
After an off season that saw Bartolo Colon and Jayson Nix as the top free agent acquisitions, Kenny made up for it this season and is lighting the fires of the hot stove already. I don't know if Kenny has a winter golf package he owns and wants to get his off season over in a hurry, but so far so good.
One championship is not enough, and being competitive is not satisfactory anymore. The Chicago White Sox are not the Florida Marlins or the Arizona Diamondbacks. When you add a former Cy Young Award winner in Jake Peavy, the AL Central is not enough. When you add Alex Rios to your lineup, who most scouts say is a five-tool player and is nearing his prime, the American League is not enough. The goal is the World Series this year for the South Side of Chicago, and nothing less should be acceptable.
"Win or die trying"
I've heard that before.
-RoCk
Rock Mamola is the Associate Producer of the Mully And Hanley Morning Show and co-host of the Joe O And Rock Show on WSCR 670AM The Score ]]>