Scott Merkin
turned his offseason spotlight on the middle infield situation Wedneday, and Kenny Williams gives us a preview of one of many spring training battlegrounds:
"It's an open competition," said White Sox general manager Ken Williams of the battle for second base. "In being consistent with what we are trying to do, we are looking for a player who helps give [manager] Ozzie [Guillen] the best chance to get off to a good start. The player who fits in best wins the job."
On the surface, that makes perfect sense. Richar didn't earn the starting job, and Juan Uribe had his best season when he bounced around the infield and ended up playing second the most in 2004. Nobody should be comfortable.
However, if Richar fell flat on his face, he and the Sox would face significant repercussions. Consider:
No. 1: The Sox don't like leaving young players cold. They didn't do it with Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney, and Josh Fields' call-up was delayed for the same reason -- if there aren't enough at-bats, there's no reason for them to be up with the big-league club. The Sox won't be wanting for second basemen either -- it's Pablo Ozuna's natural position, and Jason Bourgeois can handle it as well.
No. 2: Second base is the only position spoken for in Charlotte. Chris Getz --
the No. 5 prospect according to Baseball America! -- spent two years in Birmingham, so the only thing stopping him from going to Charlotte is injury. Maybe Richar slides over to shortstop and fakes it a little (
Josh Fields did the same thing for a handful of games last year), but that's not the most desirable outcome.
No. 3: The Sox could use Aaron Cunningham right about now. Here are some wild stabs at the starting outfields for the Knights and Barons next year:
- Charlotte: Thomas Collaro, Brian Anderson, ???
- Birmingham: David Cook, Maurice Gartrell, Archie Gilbert
Gartrell and Gilbert aren't locks, either, and none of them are likely to be in the Sox's major-league plans. Cunningham, on the other hand, had met expectations at every step before the trade.
For all the angst over trading Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos, it might be the middle infield deals that will put Kenny Williams in the biggest bind, because it appears that he misread the market.
The
Richar-Cunningham trade went down June 16 -- and it appeared that it was entirely predicated upon the Sox losing Tadahito Iguchi.
Iguchi was dealt July 27. It made sense to deal him, because the Sox wouldn't have been compensated if he left via free agency. But then he settled for a one-year deal with the Padres, which would have been perfect for the Sox.
Now here's where it officially got hairy:
- The Sox re-signed Uribe to a slightly reduced deal Nov. 7.
- The Sox traded Jon Garland for Orlando Cabrera Nov. 19.
- David Eckstein joined the Blue Jays Dec. 14, Iguchi signed Dec. 18.
The reason I bring up Eckstein is that he represented the top of the free-agent class for shortstops -- and he ended up signing the same deal as Uribe a month and a week later, at one year and $4.5 million.
Simply put, teams didn't rush to fill in their keystone combinations this year. Maybe nobody could have anticipated that in June, when Williams wanted to have a second baseman waiting in the wings and thus acquired Richar, but if he had to do it all over again, he probably would want to wait longer to rejigger Uribe's deal. At the very least, the Cabrera trade would seem more worthwhile.
As troubling as the situation seems, it's not unsalvageable. Williams needs two things to happen from here on out:
For starters, Richar needs to earn at least a platoon role out of the gate. He showed the ability to hit righties in Charlotte, with
a 1.066 OPS over 93 at-bats, and
a .901 OPS over 186 ABs for Arizona's Triple-A club before the trade. He
didn't show a split OPS-wise during his stint with the Sox last year, but 15 of his 35 hits against righties went for extra bases. That's nothing to sneeze at.
A straight platoon at second wouldn't exactly be explosive, because Uribe doesn't hit well no matter what arm the pitcher's using. That's not Richar's fault, though, and at least he would be getting the bulk of the at-bats.
Williams also must resist the urge to re-sign Cabrera, because the draft picks are crucial -- not only to make more sense of the Garland trade, but to recoup the second-round pick the Sox lost in the upcoming draft because they signed Scott Linebrink. The Sox would have to fill the shortstop hole again, but Williams managed to overfill the Sox outfield with a couple unexpected moves. I don't see why he couldn't do the same at one position for which the market has been dry for quite some time.
This process starts with Richar 41 days from now, when the Sox play their first spring training game. If
his .500 OPS in the Dominican Winter League is any indication, he has a ton of work cut out for him.