Note: I’ll be posting the eulogies for Jose Contreras and Jermaine Dye (once he finds a team) on the site. The rest of the non-returning players are covered in the book.
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I'll miss watching Contreras stretch his fingers with a softball during warmups.
Over his entire White Sox career, Jose Contreras’ stat line looks like that of an average pitcher. He finished with a 55-56 record and a 4.66 ERA, which is almost the definition of “break-even” when compared to the rest of the American League.
Funny thing is, that’s a description that rarely fit Contreras, who spent more time being historically great or god-awful than anything in between. And over the last three years of his contract — an extension that was ill-advised in hindsight — his starts were difficult to endure, most of the time.
With Contreras, it had to be assumed that other forces were always at play, starting with his age. He came to the Sox in 2004 listed at 32, and when Kenny Williams traded him at the very end of August of 2009, Ozzie Guillen guessed he was 49.
He seemed to be a sensitive soul with excuses at hand, dating back to his time in New York, when he was separated from his wife and kids, who remained in Cuba during Contreras’ early years. Family issues came back to bite him with the Sox, as he was served with divorce papers and a subpoena for a smuggling investigation before his disastrous Opening Day start in 2007.
