Normally, I wait until after a player has officially found work elsewhere before I serve up the eulogy. I’m making an exception for Jermaine Dye.

For one, he’s had a rough winter — at least as rough as somebody who feels insulted by annual salaries worth more than my job pays over a lifetime.  It’s easy to knock him for poor strategy, and I’ve done my fair share.

And also, it’s going to be confined to print, anyway.  I received the proof copy of White Sox Outsider 2010.  Once I make a couple of tweaks — probably as soon as tomorrow — it’ll be ready for sale.  I may as well give potential customers an idea of what’s inside this book (which will be $19.95).

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Jermaine Dye probably should have been an Arizona Diamondback.

After he agreed to a two-year, $10.15 million deal with the Chicago White Sox in December of 2004, the D-Backs came calling multiple times over the course of the day.  The fourth and final time, the Diamondbacks added $1 million to the Sox’s offer.[1] Most others in Dye’s place would have accepted the higher offer, especially when considering that Dye and his family live in the Phoenix area.  Most people watching would have understood.

Look at Omar Vizquel.  Vizquel nearly signed a two-year contract in the range of $9 million earlier in that offseason.  At the last minute, the San Francisco Giants swooped in and offered him the third year he desired.  That changed his mind, he took the Giants’ offer, leaving Kenny Williams stunned.  Williams certainly didn’t hold it against him – he signed Vizquel to a one year, $1.3 million contract five years later.

Dye hadn’t played a game for the Sox, and he hadn’t signed any paperwork.  There was nothing stopping him from accepting the Diamondbacks’ advances, but for whatever reason, Dye felt like he had to uphold his oral agreement.

So Jermaine Dye signed with the White Sox, and in the process, irrevocably altered the history of the franchise. Click to continue »