The White Sox exercised their 2011 options on reliever Matt Thornton and catcher Ramon Castro, tweets MLB.com's Scott Merkin. The Sox also requested release waivers on righty Carlos Torres so he can pursue a job in Asia.
Thornton's $3MM option, which had a $250K buyout, was a given after his dominant 2010 season. The hard-throwing southpaw posted a 2.67 ERA, 12.0 K/9, and 3.0 BB/9 in 60.6 innings, the only blemish being an August forearm injury. After Thornton's strong '06 campaign for the Sox, GM Kenny Williams wisely signed him to a three-year deal with club options for 2010 and '11. Talking to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Thornton said he's confident he can close in 2011 if needed. Many consider Bobby Jenks a non-tender candidate.
Castro had a $1.2MM option with a $200K buyout, so his option was also an easy choice. In his second season as A.J. Pierzynski's backup he hit .278/.328/.504 with eight home runs in only 128 plate appearances.
Torres, 28, was ranked 16th among White Sox prospects by Baseball America heading into the season. He repeated Triple A, posting a 3.42 ERA, 7.9 K/9, and 4.0 BB/9 in 160.3 innings. BA wrote that Torres "profiles as a long reliever/sixth starter." His repertoire: "a heavy 90-92 fastball and a plus cutter that frustrates lefthanders." They described him as an organizational favorite for his fearlessness and durability.
Not a surprise here, just don’t know why it took so long.
I think baseball tend to take longer, or have a set date when they exercise options. There was probably no discussion on these, but it took just as long last year for Thornton and Freddy, whose options were also exercised on the same day if I remember correctly.
Kevin – who knows – a no-brainer – maybe KW was trying to get Thigpen as his closer.
If the sox can get off to a decent start, they are going to be tough to beat next year.
Disagree – to many holes – closer – setup men – of -3b
Morel will take care of third, set up will be Sergio, and I bet we resign putz.
The AL central will finish identical to this year. Twins will come in first, get swept in the playoffs because they always have just enough pitching to skate by the regular season. Detroit will start off hot and fade away after the break. The most predictable division in baseball
jesus christ, are you people doing this already? the goddamn offseason hasn’t even started yet, and maybe some of you forgot this but, teams can change their rosters…with player transactions…and-wait for this one-IMPROVE. no way.
and so you must be the guy that predicted back to back game 163’s, huh. hope you made some money on that humdinger.
doubtfull….hardy wont be back(good for the twins) hudson will probably look else where same with thome(he will get better offers) the pitchers are always a question mark for the twins too…plus whats going to happen to kubal? and will morneau be fully recovered…
Kevin – Please name the rookies that started for playoff teams? Enough said
Danny Valencia, Jayson Heyward, Buster Posey, Desmond Jennings, Bumgarner. I’m not blindly saying they’ll easily make the playoffs. But the wholes they have aren’t that big, and not as numerous as others.
Mitch Moreland. Holland hasn’t started a game but has come in relief. He may start the 4th game of world series against Bumgarner depending on the outcome of the first 3 games.
Thanks fixed it.
Three out of 64 are not good odds.
Where and how are you getting those odds?
eight teams in playoffs – eight position players start do the math
How is that relevant? some of the playoff teams have given 8 of those starting positions to rookies, who have made huge impacts, Jayson Heyward, Buster Posey, Desmond Jennings. I guarantee you can go back and always find a starting rookie on a team that made the playoffs, look at Evan Longoria who help to lead his team to the playoffs in 08 and got Rookie Of the Year.
eight teams in playoffs – eight position players start do the math
wish there was a “hahha suck it” button
Valencia, Heyward, Posey, Jaso, Moreland, and Brooks Conrad — all of them were in the starting lineup…
Bumgarner, and Wade Davis were in their rotationsTravis Wood (who was in the rotation, but they didn’t get to him), Neftali Feliz, Venters, Chapman, Kimbrel, Michael Dunn and Holland were in the bullpen(although I don’t think you meant bullpen pitchers)
not too many holes at all…closer is either thornton or santos…and set up is who ever of those two does not close…this is assuming jenks and or putz dont come back….I would put money on putz coming back more than jenks….OF really only has one hole and thats right…with all the out fielders as FA’s and with jordan danks being a Defensive god there is an internal option there if they decide to trade carlos quentin….3b is an easy fix….brent morell he showed he has gold glove skills in the bigs and can hit too….not too many holes at all as long as peavy comes back they will be a force and as long as they dont start slow again they will make the central very very very interesting
I guess Carlos Torres saw Colby Lewis’ starts in the ALCS?
no he figured he will make more money and possibly get to start in asia…assuming japan
Can anyone tell me why we picked up Castro’s option? That guy sucks. I figured Flowers would be the back up at least.
.832 ops from your backup catcher sucks, huh. ok.
Castro had an option?! Awesome!