Once again, Kenny Williams acquired a guy that had long been tied to the White Sox. Once again, he made a trade that's hard to get upset about.
And once again, it's hard to tell if the team is any better off for it.
By acquiring Juan Pierre and $10.5 million in exchange for Jon Link and John Ely, Williams merely continued this offseason's theme of expending energy on the margins. Adding onto the running total from before, Williams has now sunk $11 million into nonessential players who stand a noticeable chance of making the team worse.
That's more than guys like Chone Figgins ($9 million) and Hideki Matsui ($6.5M) will make in 2009 -- guys who would have filled three or four needs instead of one, one-and-a-half of them.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
It's easy to load up on sarcasm when discussing a guy like Pierre, but there's a non-zero chance he could be an asset. I mentioned a couple of days ago that his year was very similiar to Scott Podsednik's. Podsednik helped last year, and so could Pierre. In fact, Pierre stands a better chance of being 2009 Scott Podsednik than Actual Scott Podsednik does, with better defense along the warning track to boot.
But looking beyond the .334 OBP and the sub-.700 OPS since 2005, and here are some other numbers staring me in the face.
6,064: Pierre's career total of plate appearances, and he enjoyed every single one of them as a member of a National League team. Some players never make the transition.
One: Home run over his last 1,707 plate appearances, dating back to August of 2006. That's as many as Jerry Owens has under his belt over the same period of time.
Seven: The number of outs Pierre ran into on the basepaths last season. He was doubled off four times. Pierre's a little like Mark Teahen in this respect -- both had histories of being smart baserunners, yet somehow cost their teams a buttload of outs last season.
.726: Pierre's career OPS against right-handed pitching. The Sox have added two more left-handed bats to the lineup, and neither of them are going to make Jered Weaver think he won't be able to hold the Sox scoreless anymore.
Adding it all up, I don't see how Williams is done dealing, despite some suggestions that he's done. I mean, this rationale sounds good upon first listening...
"Ozzie and I have been speaking on that, and we spoke on it again [Tuesday],'' Williams said of the DH spot. "Right now, what he would like to do is sit where we are right now because he likes flexibility with the DH position, whether it be a guy getting a break or keeping your bench players fresh. Guys like [Andruw] Jones, [Mark] Kotsay, [Omar] Vizquel, getting [Paul] Konerko off of his feet and getting into the DH spot ... he likes the flexibility that comes with it.
...until you realize what Ozzie Guillen actually wants to do is regularly deploy a reject to fill one of the most critical positions for an American League Lineup (no, not the Leadoff Position).
Worse yet, that bench now includes:
- Two guys who may have had dead cat bounces last year (Jones and Kotsay).
- One guy who has an OPS+ of 58 since turning 40.
And worse still, the other two offensive players acquired by Williams -- Teahen and Alex Rios -- are in the midst of significant multiple-year declines.
Now Williams adds Pierre, the sabermetric whipping boy, to the mix, and it's hard for some to restrain themselves.
The trade, however, also opens the door for a lot of great nicknames for the South Siders' outfield when it happens to be comprised of Pierre, former Los Angeles teammate Andruw Jones(notes) and expensive Blue Jays castoff Alex Rios(notes). "The Discounted", "The Ned Colletti Memorial Outfield" and "Where's Vernon Wells(notes) When You Need Him?" happen to be my early favorites. (Feel free to submit your favorite nicknames below.)
The thing is, it's not really laughable if Williams can figure out a way to acquire a middle-of-the-order bat. Pierre isn't a bad fit, and neither are the several players acquired before him in the offseason. It just so happens that none of them have proven themselves to be game-changers, and it appears that Williams expects a couple to somehow emerge from the miasma.
If that's the case, then we should gear up for disappointment, because the foundation of this roster wouldn't be suitable for a house of cards. However, I'm going to reserve doomsday predictions until the end of spring training. The signs of weakness seem way too obvious at this juncture to not be addressed.
But if an out-pocalypse is upon us, then 2012 becomes more interesting. That's the year Kenny Williams' contract is allegedly up, and it's also the year that Figgins may not start living up to his contract.
I would reserve your jersey now.
************************************
Leftovers:
*Link isn't a big loss, but dealing Ely hurts just a little. The Sox lack starting depth, and Ely was the best starting candidate of a thin crop behind Daniel Hudson.
However, Ely is basically Lance Broadway, and if you need more proof, Phil Rogers is mourning the trade. He said the same thing about Broadway... and Heath Phillips .. and Kyle McCulloch. If you're right-handed, can't crack 90 and experience success at Double-A, Rogers basically has adoption papers ready.
Not to mention that Brandon Hynick will probably be able to fill that fringy, low-ceiling crafty righty role. The Sox acquired him when they dumped Jose Contreras, and people thought the Rockies gave up too much. There's a reason these guys float around.
*Additional reading material on this deal: Larry and J.J. both weigh in.
*Jayson Nix was wondering where he fit before Pierre was acquired. Now it appears his future on the South Side is even more tenuous.
I'm not a huge fan of Nix, mainly because I think he takes pitches without knowing why he's taking them. Still, look at his home run rate in 2009 compared to the guys who may usurp him:
- Jones: 16.5 at-bats per homer
- Nix: 21.3
- Teahen: 43.7
- Vizquel: 177
- Pierre: LOW BATT
Like I said, this team needs power badly.
