Has Kenny Williams Lost His Mind?

Today, Kenny Williams, in his infinite wisdom, decided to trade White Sox closer Sergio Santos to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league pitcher Nestor Molina.  This bumbling mistake called a “trade” by Williams also does my fantasy team no favors as Sergio is one of my closers and now has to face the Rays, Yanks, and Red Sox many more times per year.

Santos has a nasty slider and is something of a rags to riches story.  He was originally with the Blue Jays and played as a shortstop.  When that didn’t work out, Sanots landed with the White Sox who transitioned him into a pitcher.  This worked out  magnificently.  Santos rose through the ranks and ultimately became the White Sox closer when Matt Thornton faltered.  Santos’ contract with the White Sox was “team friendly” as he was set to make 1 million next year, 2.75 million in 2013 and 3.75 million in 2014.  For a proven closer that has not yet maximized his potential, Santos was a steal.  For a comparison, Heath Bell (a closer who is probably on the downward trend of his career) recently signed with the Miami Marlins and will be making 27 million dollars spread over the next 3 years.

Former White Sox Closer Sergio Santos

When questioned about this bizarre move, Williams said, “It is the start of a rebuilding. You guys know I have not used that word in 12 years. It’s the start of a rebuilding now.”  I supposed to Williams, “rebuilding” means getting rid of the young players that you can build around in favor of minor league risks.

Let’s face it though, Santos was really more of Ozzie’s guy.  Matt Thornton was slated to be the White Sox closer in 2011 but he stumbled out of the gate and struggled mightily the entire year.  After dominating in 2010, Thornton simply couldn’t get it together in 2011, despite his large salary.  Santos on the other hand, who was always favored by Ozzie, performed magnificently, especially throughout July and August when the White Sox were rolling right along.  But, when Ozzie was ousted, partially to save Williams’ ego, his guys lost their protection.

My main question is, “just who will close for the White Sox now that Santos is a Blue Jay?”  Matt Thornton is supposedly on the trading block (after failing so spectacularly as the closer in 2011) and Chris Sale is headed to the starting rotation.  Is Jesse Crain going to be closing games on the South Side in 2012.  Jesse Crain, the Canadian who was called “Crain Drain” in Minnesota?….

Maybe Nestor Molina will be the 2015 Cy Young winner, who knows.  The Sox farm system is depleted as they have devoted tens of millions of dollars into failed projects like Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Jake Peavy rather than investing in their future.

The main point underlying the story here is that the White Sox are not truly rebuilding.  They are going to lose younger players like Santos, Danks and Floyd who could be a part of the team for 5 years or more down the line.  They have too much money tied up in aging players both useful (Konerko) and also useless (Peavy, Dunn, Rios).  So, they can’t really rebuild.  They can weather the storm, dump as much salary as possible and wait for the stupid moves Williams made over the past 3 years to expire.  Then they can rebuild.

Long story short, on the first day of the baseball winter meetings, the White Sox have signaled that they won’t be a very good team for a few years.  Despite their payroll that is closer to the higher end of the spectrum than the lower end, the White Sox will continue to be a fixture in the middle of the AL Central.  I guess the fact that they’re “rebuilding” makes me feel better about it.