The White Sox announced that they have exercised the 2013 club option on the contract of right-hander Gavin Floyd while declining 2013 options on right-hander Brett Myers and third baseman Kevin Youkilis. Floyd will earn a base salary of $9.5MM in 2013. Myers will receive a $3MM buyout instead of his $10MM option while Youkilis will get $1MM in place of his $13MM option.
Floyd, 29, posted a 4.29 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 29 starts last season. The exercising of the option means that Floyd will earn more in 2013 than he has in any previous year. The right-hander signed a four-year, $15.5MM extension with the club in March of 2009 that now totals $25MM across five years with today's news.
The White Sox acquired Myers and a pair of minor leaguers from the Astros in July for cash considerations and a low-level minor league pitcher. The 32-year-old had a fairly even split between the two clubs, as he posted a 3.31 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in total on the year. Keeping the reliever would have been fairly costly, but team president Kenny Williams recently said that Myers could potentially be moved into a starting role for the club next season. Of course, the White Sox could still sign the veteran to a new deal.
Youkilis' $13MM option was widely considered a slam dunk to be declined, but the club has been open abou their desire to keep him in Chicago. The veteran saw his offensive production improve after coming over from the Red Sox, hitting .236/.346/.425 with 15 homers in 344 plate appearances for the club.
these all make sense, there is no way the whitesox were about to pay Meyers 10 million. They have a proven closer in Reed making the minimum, and the back end is solid with crain, thornton, and jones. That being said, if they could bring him back for 2-3 million im all for it but he will more than likely get that on the market. Youk while awesome for the whitesox, he single handedly won at least 5 games for them, he broke down towards the end and his knee injury clearly hurt his swing and fielding. Again no way his option was going to get picked up. Wouldnt mind him back but much cheaper.
Floyd makes sense because they dont know how Danks is going to perform after coming back from the injury. he still could look to be traded this off season
I wouldn’t exactly call someone with 29 career saves a proven closer.
by proven i mean that he proved this year he could handle it
Really? ERA in the high 4s, couldn’t close the door late in the season a number of times. I’m not too confident in his abilities.
Youk to the Jays, he adds some much needed obp to the lineup. and even if he’s bad, he’ll be better than lind
Back to Boston for Youk? How about the other side of Chicago?
Considering a few changes this does bring up an interesting possibility: Youk back to the Red Sox as first baseman.
Before people laugh and completely dismiss the possibility consider the following: 1) Youk lost playing time because Middlebrooks was proving to be ready and Gonzalez was firmly entrenched at first. But the Red Sox need a first baseman and Loney better not be the answer. 2) Youk’s main conflict was with Valentine, Farrell on the other hand was respected. 3) One theory behind Youk’s deterioration is him playing third, moving to first permanently could be in his best interest.
Just saying, interesting possibility.
Youk returning to Boston to play 1B in 2013 makes more sense than Loney returning to Boston next season.
I’ve been wanting this to happen since they traded him. I think he could return to health an effectiveness with a full-time 1B job.
Youk is a low 200s hitter now. There is no way you ever put a guy with low power, low BA at 1st.
Makes all the sense in the world to me. Youkilis would be damn good addition at first base for Boston and he will be motivated to play under Farrell now that Valentine (who he did not get along with) is no longer manager.
I think he could definitely return.
The only threat in my mind other than Boston is Cleveland and thats because they have Terry Francona now and he can pull him there easily.
9.5 for Floyd?
“The White Sox acquired Myers and a pair of minor leaguers from the Astros in July for cash considerations and a low-level minor league pitcher”…….I don’t think so. The White Sox acquired Myers and in return the Astros acquired three minor league pitchers from the White Sox — Matt Heidenreich, Blair Walters and Chris Devenski. Devenski by the way went on to pitch a minor league no-hitter, striking out 16 and Heidenreich also pitched solidly. Not that any of them are future superstars, but give Jeff Luhnow more credit than that.
I don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would downvote you correcting the obviously wrong article. So there must be at least 2 people here who aren’t in their right minds.
Youk would look pretty good in Angel red.
Sorry guys, Youk will be coming back to the White Sox. Hahn wants him back along with AJ and Brett Meyers.
As a Red Sox fan, I always liked Youk. Two things need to happen with him. One, he needs to tone down his emotions. Two: he needs to drop about 20+ pounds and get into the best shape of his career—or he’s done. He’s always played a bit heavy, but at his age, it’s becoming a problem.