Last year, the Sox were a model of cost certainty as much as they were a model of sound team baseball.
Featuring a lineup with only one player entering unrestricted free
agency, and with zero players being paid more than $9 million, Kenny
Williams was able to construct a roster that featured a hell of a
pitching staff complimented by a lineup with no major holes.
It finished the season with 99 wins and only need 12 games to win the final 11 in the playoffs.
And all for $73.2 million,
13th highest in the league and second-lowest among the eight playoff teams.
Barring unforeseen spending by the clubs currently ahead of the Sox on
that list, Chicago should end up solidly in the top 10 of baseball's
biggest spenders. It's been smart spending though, and entering
the 2006 they'll have still kept their general shape.
Factoring in a rough estimation of Joe Crede's arb salary, they'll
be around $93 million. Call them a plus-sized model these days.
Only Paul Konerko will be paid more than $10 million by the Sox next
year (Javier Vazquez and Jim Thome will be making double-digits as
well, but they'll be partially paid by their old teams). Only
Jose Contreras and Scott Podesdnik are unrestricted free-agents after
this year, and the team has already insurance for both of them (Brandon
McCarthy and Jerry Owens, respectively). Jermaine Dye may be the
only one the Sox may struggle to replace, but unlike pitchers, most
teams don't have to pay a premium for an average corner outfielder.
Hell, they aren't even paying a premium for above-average starting
pitching. They're paying around $40 million for six quality
starters; none of them more than Vazquez's $9.25 million. Here's
a list of some of the pitchers who will earn more than that in 2006:
Mike Mussina ($14.75 million), Carl Pavano ($10), Curt Schilling
($12.75), A.J. Burnett ($11), Kevin Millwood ($12), Mike Hampton ($15
million), Kerry Wood ($10.83), Chan Ho Park ($13). Of those
pitchers, only two of them would make the Sox rotation as is, and they
wouldn't be particularly big upgrades if they were an upgrade at all.
Overall, the Sox are paying $20 million more for this team than they
did for the 2005 Sox. Only Konerko had the Sox over a barrel, and
that $4 million increase is the result of that. Here's how they
spent the other $16 million that was not due to arbitration increases
and buyouts:
Jim Thome for Carl Everett. The Sox will pay $8 million
this year for Thome, after paying $4 million for Carl Everett last
year. The increase in production from this spot should easily be
worth it. If Thome's healthy, this is a steal.
Javier Vazquez for El Duque. Last year, the Sox paid El
Duque $4 million. They're paying Vazquez $9.25 million.
They'll probably get twice as many innings in comparison to El Duque,
twice as many strikeouts, half as many walks, and hopefully twice as
many wins. For just over twice the cost, that seems fair.
Rob Mackowiak for Timo Perez. Mackowiak will be paid $2.63
million for this year, filling in for Timo Perez, who made $1
million. I popped a bottle of champagne over this move, and I
don't even like the bubbly.
I'm just as comfortable with the financial efficiency for those moves
as I am paying six 15-game winners less than $7 million on
average. We're talking the-recliners-in-my-basement-type comfort
right there.