White Sox GM Kenny Williams wants to keep veteran Paul Konerko beyond this season, writes Scott Merkin of MLB.com. While Williams says that he "would love" to have the slugger retire with the organization, the club may not be able to find space on the payroll to make that happen.
"That's pretty much all I'm going to say on it, because I don't know what the future holds," said Williams. "I don't know how we are going to finish. We are driven by the revenue stream that comes in. People might not like it but it is what it is. We have to at least be able to be a break-even operation, and try to win at the same time."
This could be a very active offseason for the White Sox as Mark Buehrle may be left as the only member of the 2005 World Series team still with the club. A.J. Pierzynski and Freddy Garcia will hit the open market and Bobby Jenks is arbitration-eligible.
The 34-year-old Konerko has had a great season at the plate in 2010, hitting .318/.397/.584 with 34 homers.
By all means keep him. Konerko is the face of the franchise in front Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, The Big Hurt, all those guys.
I disagree with Frank Thomas. When I hear White Sox I still think Frank Thomas.
He’ll be back.
Good. If it aint broke don’t fix it.
Yeah he needs to retire with the Sox. It’s good for the game.
I would hope that the Sox would not make a poor decision like letting Konerko or AJ go. Konerko is having that will put him at least in the MVP discussion. They let him go, and there will be next to no power left in that lineup. If the team doesn’t pony up the money for Konerko, they won’t be bringing in another bat.
As for AJ, I believe the Sox need to retain him for at least another year or 2. Flowers has taken a major step backward. Behind Flowers, the Sox have no real catching prospects. No AJ hasn’t been able to hit this season. However, he knows the pitching staff upwards and down.
…My opinions. However, there’s a reason they don’t pay me.
Phegley is another catching prospect to keep an eye on:
baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=phegle…
Phegley is going to be pretty good. However, he is further behind than Flowers is. I think the Sox need to keep AJ.
Writing as a Twins fan, I think the White Sox would be foolish to let either Konerko or Pierzynski go. Those two guys provide the heart for the White Sox; they are the position players who seem most offended when their team loses and seem to try harder – especially if the other teams is the Twins.
Writing as a Twins fan, I think the White Sox would be foolish to let either Konerko or Pierzynski go. Those two guys provide the heart for the White Sox; they are the position players who seem most offended when their team loses and seem to try harder – especially if the other teams is the Twins.
the Sox need to sign the best players that can help them win & not worry about who is the face of the team. If they were worried about that in ’05 they would have kept Maggs. They are in need of a LH bat more than anything next yr.
I don’t see how it would be hard to keep Konerko. He’s obviously not getting the $12M he’s making this year on the open market. You offer him $8M for 3 years and that’s more than enough to keep him. Throw in Victor Martinez at like 4yr/$40-45M and you are still saving $8M from this year’s payroll. So even if Danks and Quentin double their salaries in arby, the payroll is virtually the same as this year. Only guy that would throw a wrinkle in would be if they retain Jenks….who isn’t going to be worth what he’ll get in arby, so probably best to let him walk (non-tender).
They only have $75M committed before raises to Quentin and Danks (I’m assuming Jenks and Pena get non-tendered…though Pena could be cheap enough to keep). That’s $30M under what this year’s payroll is….
I don’t see how it would be hard to keep Konerko. He’s obviously not getting the $12M he’s making this year on the open market. You offer him $8M for 3 years and that’s more than enough to keep him. Throw in Victor Martinez at like 4yr/$40-45M and you are still saving $8M from this year’s payroll. So even if Danks and Quentin double their salaries in arby, the payroll is virtually the same as this year. Only guy that would throw a wrinkle in would be if they retain Jenks….who isn’t going to be worth what he’ll get in arby, so probably best to let him walk (non-tender).
They only have $75M committed before raises to Quentin and Danks (I’m assuming Jenks and Pena get non-tendered…though Pena could be cheap enough to keep). That’s $30M under what this year’s payroll is….
I say if Morneau ends up being done for good (Corey Koskie anyone?), wouldn’t it be nice to let Konerko play 1b in Minnesota?
He’d look awfully good with a TC on his cap.