The White Sox non-tendered reliever Bobby Jenks, tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Lefty Erick Threets, who was not arbitration eligible, was also cut loose.
Jenks, 30 in March, will probably be the day's most glamorous addition to the free agent list. The 6'4", 275 pound righty posted his best strikeout rate since his rookie year, but the Sox unsurprisingly did not deem him worthy of a raise upon this year's $7.5MM salary. Unless they add a free agent, they can turn to Matt Thornton or Chris Sale in the ninth inning.
Jenks burst on to the scene with the 2005 World Championship club and ended up with 173 saves in his White Sox career. All those saves would have made his arbitration reward excessive for the Sox, but now Jenks' agents at Legacy Sports can seek a multiyear deal on the open market.
Threets, a hard-throwing 29-year-old, tossed 12 1/3 innings for the Sox this year without allowing an earned run. He had an excellent ERA at Triple-A as well, though his strikeout rates were low at both stops. He did have a strong 55.6% groundball rate in his brief Major League stint.
Ouch! But I’m sure Sox fans musta seen that coming.
Since the tail end of last season. He’s been pretty brutal for a while. Especially considering what they’d been paying him.
He wasn’t used at the end of last year to close – then as always got hurt.
Fastball in low 90’s with no control. End up being a breaking ball pitcher
Whoa… he just made all those relievers who declined arbitration see their value drop…
No one can be surprised by this. His numbers have been in decline for 3 years. Is he REALLY dominant when he’s on? Yes. But unfortunately, his has lost his consistency. Unfotunately, we now have a gaping whole in our backend bullpen. Thorton and Sale are not enough. With Putz and Jenks gone… our bullpen is now really suspect.
Where are you plugging Santos in at?
Ah my mistake, forgot about Santos. If Sale moves to rotation, bullpen is weak. With those three in the bullpen, who is your closer? I am not convinced of Thorton as CL… with Santos as CL, you need a SOLID RHP to compliment Sale Matt.
Wow…..reading boatloads of Dunn to White Sox articles posted since about noon central time.
I like Thornton in the 8th inning role. It’s a long offseason. KW always seems to shake something loose. I think they can find value equal to what Jenks was giving them for a lot less money.
Cooper has said they don’t want to move Sale to the rotation until maybe 2012…but you know how that goes.
Sale is in the rotation not the Pen.
If this is the case, long term (not just until Peavy comes back, if he comes back)… then KW needs to go do work on this bullpen, or we’re in for looooong 2011.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I know that Ozzie and Kenny were both incredibly impressed by his stuff coming out of the Pen. I think that Sale would be slidding into the closer role, especially considering that they let him close 4 games at the end of there to see if he could handle it.
Secondly, there’s no spot in the rotation for him. He would be there for a month then moved to the Pen anyways. Why wouldn’t, with his talent, he be closing all year.
I think Thornton and Santos become the Lefty/Righty setup men, and Sale closes next year.
Putz is not gone just looking for a multi-year deal.
Jerry and KW won’t spend the cash to bring him back. I’m thinking maybe Raphael Soriano may be in play.
I think that Sox have targeted Soriano for sure – problem with Putz is he wants closer money. I see both being signed. Thome back as LH DH. Find a good defensive RF maybe Frenchy. And we are good to go
I don’t know where you are getting your information but it must be some other planet Rock. The Sox have not targeted Soriano at all. Why would we? We didn’t want to give Jenks a raise on $7.5 million, we don’t have a lot of money to work with and yet you are saying we would go out and sign the best available closer? Anyone who signs Soriano will be overpaying and the White Sox don’t want to do that. The rest of your comment doesn’t hold water either. Why would the Sox sign Soriano and then sign Putz? Thome hasn’t said if he is even going to come back and play or not. Lastly, if Frenchy is going to play RF and we are going to have Thome as a DH then where does Quentin fit? No one has indicated that he will be non-tendered. If you platoon Thome and Quentin then you are overpaying for a DH. No, what the White Sox should do is resign Jenks to a 3 year $9million contract, resign A.J. to the same type of deal and use the rest of your money to resign Konerko. That isn’t the ideal plan cause the Sox don’t add a power hitter like Dunn but with Jordan Danks and Mitchell in the minors playing well; you can have Quentin DH full-time. Thus the outfield defense gets better, Quentin stays healthy, our DH gets better, and with rebound years for Beckham and A.J. our offense should be just fine.
Were do I start – Money has never been an issue with the Sox (just offered V-Mart 4yrs 48M) Jenks won’t sign for 3M a year. AJ poorest catcher in AL throwing out runners. Quentin hit .240 last year and struck out a ton and is a poor OFer. Danks hit .228 in AAA. Mitchel hit .169 in AFL. They are not even in the top 100 ML prospects list. Sox need bullpen help, RF and DH. I will agree Konerko should come back 2/24 with an option for third year.
Red Sox will pick him up. I’m sure Theo’s asking him what number he wants right about now.
Not so sure about that, Jenks will want to close. Apparently the Red Sox have some other guy to do that.
Sox are thinking about non-tendering Papelbon according to an article on NESN.com by Tom Caron. You can get a couple good relievers and have some left over to put toward Crawford’s contract for $11mm.
If only to show Papelbon his future.
The White Sox have tended to be a very loyal organization. It was time for Jenks to move on. He was a major cog in the run to the 2005 World Championship. Hope he succeeds wherever he catches on. Bobby was the man!
This was totally expected. He’s a young guy, I wish him much luck wherever he winds up, thanks for the memories, Big Boy!
Thank goodness he is gone….I cant stand the guy. He goes to Spring Training out of shape and then blows games that you absolutely have to win.
Rays for a year or two anyone?
he could be resigned at a cheaper price….to the commenter who said sale is not enough is not a sox fan…sale is being groomed for the rotation in case peavy is not ready or in case they trade floyd….thonrton is very good choice for closer, santos could do it…jenks can be brough back cheaper, they could offer putz the closers role…
First they’d have to bring Putz back, which isn’t anywhere near a guarantee.
Cooper has already said he prefers Sale in the bullpen.
I’m just think that the Jays are a great fit here. They’ve got cash, a vacant closing spot and AA has been all over good players that had bad years.
He’d look great in Sox of different color. I bet Theo had him on speed dial.
I’ve been wondering about that since the end of the season, they are desperate to dump Paps, Jenks is a logical addition for them.
ya i wouldnt mind seeing him sign with the jays maybe a 2 year 10-12 mill contract? with an option perhaps?? hes still relatively young , i cant see it hurting there bullpen, and would still be an upgrade from gregg.
Sounds like TB just found a cheap closer.
angels? i know the angels drafted him, maybe they could use him
I can see the Angels as a good fit too. Who else? Arizona?
I think the Angels released him because of other reasons than performance.
i see him as a blue jay as closer
How long will it take before the Yanks are mentioned to be linked.
He’d be a good fit since he’s a groundball pitcher.
He wouldn’t even be the seventh-inning guy on that Yankees team. He wants saves, and he’d be fourth in line.
Red Sox could use him. Could be a good fit.
Best thing for Jenks to do would be re-establish some value in the National League as a closer for a weak team. I could see him signing with a team like the Pirates, sort of like what Octavio Dotel did last year. If he has a great first half, the Pirates flip him for a prospect or two, and everyone’s happy. One thing I can’t see is him pitching in a closing role in the AL East. Scary thought.
If Kevin Gregg can re-establish himself in the AL East, then Bobby Jenks can. Rafael Soriano also improved on a switch from form the NL to the AL east.
Also to say he has no control anymore is a little crazy he only walked 18 guys last year and had only one HBP. That’s not bad at all.
Arizona will get Jenks or Putz to be their closer. I would not mind either.
If I’m AA, I jump on this opportunity. He had a down year and he fills the closer role.
Seems like a pretty good buy-low option if you ask me.
Why didn’t they sign Erick Threets? He had a zero ERA and did great as a reliever, I thought he’d be a good cheap reliever for the Sox in 2011.
he had TJ and is out until 2012 thats why
Thanks.
Threets was god-awful! What team were you watching?
I think he is hurt.
Threets blew out his arm. He was supposed to be out for all of 2011 the last I heard.
Go get ’em Towers.