The White Sox and Will Ohman have agreed to a two-year contract, the team announced. The deal is worth $4MM total, reports SI.com's Jon Heyman (Twitter links). Ohman is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
The 33-year-old Ohman spent most of the 2010 season with Baltimore before being traded to the Marlins. The lefty reliever held same-side batters to a .229/.323/.313 last year, but .208/.298/.348 over his entire career. He's strictly a lefty specialist, because righties have tagged him for a .264/.360/.400 batting line in his career. Ohman has a 4.09 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in a big league career that began back in 2000.
Ohman, who earned $1.35MM in 2010, joins Pedro Feliciano, Randy Choate, Scott Downs, and Hisanori Takahashi as lefty relievers who received multiyear deals this offseason. Chicago has already added Jesse Crain to their bullpen this offseason, and the addition of Ohman gives Ozzie Guillen a lefty for the middle innings. Matt Thornton will of course handle late game situations.
We heard that the ChiSox were favored to sign him on Friday, after we learned that three AL teams were the finalists for his services.
And on paper the White Sox look like the team to beat in the AL Central. Great moves by Kenny Williams & co. Ozzie has plenty of bullpen arms to turn to now, only question is… who’s the closer?
As of now it’s probably Thornton, unless the Sox find a way to sign Soriano, it’s probably going to stay this way.
Thornton seems like a good choice. Wonder how he will handle the role. From what i’ve seen of him, seems like he will embrace it.
it sales…ajp you hav no cllue what ur talking about
it sales…ajp you hav no cllue what ur talking about
ya its gonna b sales…u have no clue wat ur talkin about dude
ya its gonna b sales…u have no clue wat ur talkin about dude
I think that Thornton is too valuable in a set-up role… you do not take the best setup man in the league out of his rightful place. That is why I believe Ozzie will chose Sergio Santos as his closer during spring training. From what I hear he has the mental mindset to be a closer and he definitely has the arm.
I wouldn’t mind Santos as closer or even Sale. I agree that Thornton has been one, if not the, best LH set up men in baseball for the past couple seasons now. I don’t want the Sox to take him out of that role just in case it throws him off. I also didn’t like what I saw in that Twins game last year when Thome hit the winning HR off him. Santos and Sale seem to have that young, closer’s mentality where they can come after hitters.
If it’s not 2 years and $2-3 million, I’d call this a bad move by Kenny. Giving two guaranteed years to a freakin’ LOOGY is ridiculous.
Agree. Loogys are the 25th man on a 25 man roster.
2yrs/4MM isn’t bad. Ohman’s pretty underrated. He’s a solid innings-eater/middle reliever.
he’s not at all an innings eater. the guy hasn’t averaged 1 IP / G since 2001. he’s just a 33 year old LOOGY with a mildly worrying injury history coming off one of the best years of his career.
Yeah I didn’t mean innings eater, I meant, mop-up man/middle reliever. Doing 5 things at once here. My bad.
wat is a loogy..you ppl r clueless..speak english
you don’t follow baseball too closely do you? LOOGY is a pretty common phrase, means a person who is designated to get out only left handed batters(like Ohman).
wat is a loogy..you ppl r clueless..speak english
He’s slightly better than the average bullpen journeyman but his OPS splits of .636LH/.842RH define his as a LOOGY IMHO. He is however a vast improvement over Randy Williams .890LH/1.083RH…………(audible shudder).
Massive upgrade over Randy. His stats have him barely above replacement level, probably due to his higher walk rate. Definitely not my first choice of those left, but he’s better than a Tim Byrdak type(who I heard them linked to) And btw this whole “LOOGY” nonsense is silly and stupid. Even if it stands for something, come up with something better friends. ffs. Someone explain the origin of this.
A quasi-acronym: Left-handed Outs Only GuY. “Situational lefthander” make you feel better?
A little. Exactly what he is. The acronym still disgusts me however.
this. ehh…i goddamn despise that garbage.
nah useless acronym
nah useless acronym
ya hes not gonna eat innings but just pitch mainly against leftys
ya hes not gonna eat innings but just pitch mainly against leftys
the white sox closer going be Rafael Soriano
No it’s not.
yes he is will where is Rafael Soriano going to sign?
shysox
Not at Chicago unless he’ll take a million a year
unless they trade away some high priced players, THEY ARE NOT GETTING HIM> but its the white sox fans being their thickheaded spoiled selfs again.
^cub fan
more like NL East fan, but thanks for trying.
doubt it.. they dont hav the money but thanks for the useless comment
when kenny williams said there they was tapped out on money they went and sign jesse crain and if u leave the cake on the counter kenny williams going to bite in to it the yankees dont want Rafael Soriano where is he going go
doubt it.. they dont hav the money but thanks for the useless comment
Rafael Soriano price going to drop alot and yankees dont want him so he go to white sox
The Yankees are just posturing so that they do not have to pay closer money for their setup man when they already have the most expensive closer in the league. The Yankees will eventually sign Soriano, it is just the game you have to play with Boras.
The Rays will sign him if the price drops that much.
dude you are sounding like Devin Hester trying to talk. Learn how to speak english and then come back on here.
To me, signing this loogy makes it more likely that they are going to give Thornton a chance to pitch the 9th inning.
Sale could also close as well.
does anybody think its odd that the article said righties have tagged him for an average of 264 ,
Yeah, I did. Those numbers against rhb combined (OPS) just marginally above major league average for all hitters. Just goes to show how specialized relief pitching has become, when a guy who gets righties out at nearly league-average clip is considered a lefty specialist only.
Clearly this move is to move Sale to the starting rotation and trade Edwin Jackson. Use Jackson’s money to sign Soriano and then finish off the roster with signing Freddy Garcia for a long relief role and to spot start to keep Sale and others fresh…..Clearly :)
Lol, if I had a larger sample size of Sale as a starter I’d be inclined to agree with you.
I still think we get Soriano too.
He’d give us the best bullpen hands down.
how we get Rafael Soriano joe we have no money to sign him his price have to drop big time
His price is going to drop. Only teams that need a closer are the White Sox and angels.
Hard to believe the angels are going to pay Soriano the money he wants so his price is obviously going to have to drop, even to take a 1 year deal and just retest free agency next year.
white sox need to trade a starter to get Rafael Soriano
This Ohman signing completes the bullpen for the White Sox and officially shuts the door on Rafael Soriano. With his team options dwindling and Soriano’s agent being the dreaded (Boras), Soriano might be settling for a 1 yr contract well below what Boras was looking for 2 weeks ago.
this doesn’t shut the door at all
If a piece of cake is sitting on the counter long enough, Kenny is going to eventually take a bite of that cake.
The problem with Ozzie and LOOGYs is that he’s got a bad habit of leaving them in against righties. Or, at least, he did that a lot with Randy Williams. I generally think Ozzie handles the staff well, but if we’re going to pay a guy knowing he can only get one type of batter, then see Ozzie run him out there like a competent reliever, we might as well just use a minor league arm like Infante (I mean, as long as someone’s going to get rocked, he should be making the minimum).
yep. is there anything ozzie does that’s useful to this team? i can’t think of anything concrete, except maybe putting 500 meatheads a year in the stands.
He does what Rex Ryan does for the Jets, he takes the attention and media pressure off the players.
Oh MAN! Hopefully Thornton is ready for the closing job
“Thornton of course will be the closer” – huh? Just last week it was reported that Sale was going to be closer heading into next season
no thornton for closer that not good hes not one pitch a fastball not good
i want Rafael Soriano for white sox closer
no thornton for closer that not good hes got one pitch a fastball not good
I want Rafael Soriano for white sox closer
He has the best fastball in baseball. Read the Fangraphs article. He is THAT good.
yeah give up your first rounder for a glorfied set up man. I mean there was a reason Cox used him and Gonzo because they were both inconsistent closers.
Sox have already lost their 1st rounder
He cant be worse hen bobby jenks Rafael Soriano
I bet you guys will be scrambling to get him back when he goes on to good things
He cant be worse hen bobby jenks Rafael Soriano
.264/.360/.400 is not even close to “tagging” him. The only concern is with the .360 obp which is a product of his control issues he has
That line is a solid player over the course of the year, and you have to take into account he wouldn’t be left in for right handed superstars in many situations. So, I’d say it’s tagging him.
I understand your point, but I would be curious to see what Ohman could do against righties with a larger sample
Ooh. I hope that he gets to do his radio show in Chicago again. He was friggen hillarious!
Not a bad move for the Sox. Looks like they spent a little much for Ohman, but let’s see if he puts of the numbers he’s capable of.
The sox have had a huge off season even if they have gone under the radar.
Oh Man, enjoy your over-pay-day.
per win last year he was worth something like 1.45m, so it’s a slight overpay in baseball salary terms if he puts up anything over 1 WAR.
Eh, I’m not sure OH! MAN! (as in oh man he blew another lead) will work out.