Ken Rosenthal’s recent report indicated that the Jermaine Dye for Bobby Abreu talks had cooled over the last week or so. However, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times indicated today that this deal "has started to take some life."
Read the article, and you’ll find some quotes from Dye that apparently have annoyed the White Sox. Personally I think his comments are just fine. Basically he says that he will play hard for any team, and that swapping him for another veteran won’t ignite the Sox. Who can disagree with that? Would Abreu really spark the Sox?
The last time the Sox made a challenge trade like this, if I recall correctly, was the Esteban Loaiza for Jose Contreras swap, also with the Yankees. That occurred at the 2004 trading deadline, and worked out quite well for the Sox.
I don’t like this trade for Chicago though. Despite his struggles, Dye is on a 30 homer pace. And the $16MM option on Abreu next year – that’s only appealing if he’s an All-Star for the White Sox. That’s hard to picture given what we’ve seen, but maybe Greg Walker has ideas on how to fix him.
It should also be noted that the Giants have been scouting the White Sox recently, and could look to acquire Dye or others.
