On Wednesday, the White Sox offered arbitration to Type B free agent Mark Buehrle, guaranteeing themselves compensation if he signs elsewhere. Interest in the left-hander has skyrocketed this winter, with as many as thirteen teams reportedly in the mix for his services. The White Sox weren't expecting this level of interest for Buehrle as they anticipated five or six teams going after him and a two-year deal being enough to retain him, a source tells Joe Cowley of the Chicago-Sun Times.
With this amount of interest in Buehrle and the Nationals visiting the pitcher at his home in St. Louis this week, it would seem that the White Sox will have to act fast and offer a longer deal to retain him. Earlier today, nearly 20% of MLBTR readers voted Buerhle as the next big free agent to sign.
How come were barely hearing about it then?
Let’s get excited over a 4+ career FIP pitcher who can’t miss bats! WOOOOOO!!
Or we could get excited about a guy who throws 200+ innings EVERY year and who also has been averaging in the range of a 3.5 WAR in recent years.
when someone makes it into a career trend to constantly outperform their FIP, i stop caring as much about it and look at their concrete numbers, especially with someone as consistent as Buerhle. You know you’ll get around a 3.75 era with 200+innings, thats what matters.
owned
I swear some of these media whores are “clueless”
What’d they expect? The best starting pitchers on this years FA market are arguably Buehrle, CJ Wilson, Edwin Jackson, and maybe Yu Darvish (if he gets posted). So naturally a guy like Buehrle is gonna draw a great deal of interest. He’s never pitched fewer than 201 innings his entire career, and has had a respectable FIP for at least 8 of those 11 seasons.
Never mind that he’s not “elite.” Good, durable innings-eaters like Buehrle are hard to come by.
Yeah I too am perplexed how Kenny Williams didn’t anticipate this amount of interest. If a common fan can Google “2012 MLB free agents” and see how thin the market is, so should a GM of a big market team…
But what difference does it make what they thought the interest would be? He was going to test the market, and the Sox don’t have much to spend this season. Whatever they thought the market would be is really of no consequence. The article doesn’t have much to say.
the sox always have a “plan”, for lack of a better term, that we eventually find out about that media never knew a damn thing of. i wouldn’t be surprised if he still signs here.
Oh I believe the White Sox knew exactly what they were doing. They had no plans to sign him for what he made this year, let alone a raise. They will gladly take their compensation for him unless he takes their low-ball offer.
Typical of the White Sox, always clueless about the market.
Is it just me are all these “shouldn’t take much to sign” guys getting a ton of attention. Are the top free agents really getting so pricey that their bidding is only among a few teams.
Once again the passive aggressive mean spirited know-it-all sarcasm is taking these boards straight down the toilet.
Having said that I assume it’ll take at least 3 years/$42MM with a $3MM buy out and an option of some sort for $14MM.
Still bet that he’s not seriously considering even half of these “thirteen teams.” He’s exploring his options, but in the end, it will come down to family and he will stay in the midwest. Everyone else is wasting their time.
I think the “staying close to family” argument expired as soon as he realized he could get Derek Lowe money (4 years/$60MM) if he went to the highest bidder.
He’s not leaving the midwest, book it.
mark’s a different sort of dude. he’s incredibly honest, and if he says something, most sox fans know it’s real talk.
I think the “staying close to family” argument expired as soon as he realized he could get Derek Lowe money (4 years/$60MM) if he went to the highest bidder.
Cowley is a hack, you can’t believe anything he writes because he’s in love with Ozzie and hates KW.
Cowley is a hack, you can’t believe anything he writes because he’s in love with Ozzie and hates KW.
Guess I’m clueless myself, I personally figured Buehrle to be a notch above a batting practice pitcher at this point.
I believe you figured wrong.
What about his stats scream “batting practice” at you? The scarily consistent 200+ innings of ~4 ERA and FIP over his career? Hardly frontline stuff, but that’s exactly what most teams want from a backend starter. Not gonna take the ball in game 7 of the world series, but he won’t get hurt or meltdown on you in the regular season.
Not even close. He’s a left-handed Jeff Suppan.
Well, if you are talking about the 2004-2006 Suppan, I believe you are dead-on.
If it was written by Cowley or Phil Rogers, it’s not worth reading. KW has made his share of mistakes no doubt, but anything written by those 2 usually has an anti-KW slant.
White Sox should hire a new GM. DO IT!!!!
Let’s see… They could hire one of my favorite all time announcers, being Hawk Harrelson.. He could scream “put it on the booaarrd… YES!” after every trade.
Cross town, recently canned GM Jim Hendry is currently without a job also, then not so sure the ChiSox could afford his horrific way of management + style.
Williams does not look to bad as compared to those 2 now does he?
They didn’t underestimate anything. They were not going to offer him more than two years regardless of the market. Barring a last minute change of heart, we’re going to be seeing Buehrle in a different uniform next year.
Agreed. The article doesn’t suggest they would have a made a different move if they had thought the interest would be greater, so it really makes no difference. They’ll offer what they’ll offer and he’ll take it or leave it – it was always going to be that way.
Lol Kenny Williams.
lol your face
It looks like Buehrle is getting alot of attention from big market teams, so his price is going up everyday. Most teams are going to want to give him 2 years, but he may squeak out 3. Of the top pitchers on the markert he has one of the best track records and seems to be a safe choice. I’m not sure he will help put a top team over the top like Fister did last year.
Plain and simple, there is no worse GM in baseball than Kenny Williams and it should surprise no one that he didn’t evaluate this situation properly.
stupid comment, the guy has flaws but he has won a world series so their are plenty of GMs worse then him
typical opinion from someone who forms it based on secondhand information. seriously, if you knew factually about his transaction history, there’s no way a rational person would come to this conclusion.
Joe Cowley and a bum off the street could tell me rumors about the White Sox with the same level of credibility.
Seems to me that the Sox wanted Buehrle back cheap, but the market priced them out.
Besides, you can’t blame Kenny Williams on the payroll, trade and draft restrictions imposed by owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
I honestly believe that Buerhle can max out to a contract similar to what Lackey & Beckett got.. 5yr 82.5mill.
lol at the team that does that. and i’m a huge buerhle fan.
The true competition here is not between the Sox and other teams. Rather, it is between Buehrle and Danks. The Sox know what they can get for trading Danks, and know what it would take to sign him long term. If the market prices Buehrle above that, then bye bye Mark, and hello to 4 years (give or take) of Danks. If the market puts MB’s salary about where it is now, then we sign him, trade Danks, and go back to crying over Rios and Dunn.