White Sox sign best fit without delay, should keep going

If the last two offseasons are any indication,  the biggest White Sox news occurs when I’m driving.

Last winter, I didn’t learn about Manny Machado signing with the Padres until I pulled into the parking lot of the Blue Benn Diner in Bennington, Vermont, some 40 minutes after it happened.

On Thursday, I discovered the White Sox signed Yasmani Grandal to a four-year, $73 million contract via an email from Greg after pulling into the Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station.

To paraphrase Larry King’s News & Views, gang, between “resigned disappointment” and “unexpected wish fulfillment,” nothing beats “unexpected wish fulfillment!”

Grandal makes so much sense for the South Side that Major League Baseball should have just placed him on the White Sox roster the moment he declined Milwaukee’s mutual option. The White Sox needed offense. Specifically left-handed offense. That can draw walks. And hit 20 homers. While not detracting from run-prevention efforts. The White Sox usually need three players to provide the skills of one good one, so here comes Grandal with enough talent for two roster spots.

Of course, Grandal was a surprise due to the money alone. The White Sox finally eclipsed Jose Abreu’s six-year, $68 million contract for the most money they’ve ever guaranteed to a player, and they didn’t even hesitate. Unlike last year’s flaccid pursuits of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, the White Sox finally acted like a team that wasn’t praying to be outbid.

The move is simultaneously so sensible and so shocking that, when you run it against the team’s history with free agents in the Rick Hahn era, one starts looking for the ways it can go wrong. You can get there if you have a masochistic streak, but I’d recommend using this as a respite from self-loathing.

The nice thing about investing in a player who does more than one thing well is that this signing shouldn’t go wrong. It could very well be underwhelming, and that’s something worth considering as the front office continues to flesh out the course, but as the list of transactions shows, the cheapest signings have cost the Sox the most.

We’re in uncharted territory when it comes to Grandal-like signings because one doesn’t really exist with this franchise, but the White Sox move that comes to mind for me is the Todd Frazier trade.

There’s the talent: The Sox paid a decent prospect cost to acquire Frazier, who was coming off two consecutive All-Star seasons with Cincinnati and two years of control remaining. He fell short of that production with the Sox, thanks to his infield-fly rate killing his batting average, but he still helped the club because he contained multitudes. He hit 40 homers, he played good defense, he ran the bases OK, and he drew some walks, resulting in a player who was average, and maybe even a little better.

And then there’s the timing: He was an early landmark move of an offseason that fizzled after the opening number.

After trading for Frazier in December, the White Sox didn’t add to their major-league roster until February, when they signed Mat Latos and Jimmy Rollins. They later signed Austin Jackson in March. The White Sox tried for veteran presence instead of talent, and that resulted in Adam LaRoche retiring, Chris Sale slicing up jerseys and Robin Ventura firing himself. Frazier outlasted them by a half-season, but in the end, his chief contributions were a diving effort into the stands that forced Hawk Harrelson to leave the broadcast booth midgame, a thousand blocked twitter accounts and a fight with Adam Eaton that still resonates today.

This situation feels different, if only because Rick Renteria is a stronger leader than Ventura and the clubhouse hasn’t fractured despite three tough years of intentional losing.

And it doesn’t sound like the White Sox intend to stop adding, either. Kenny Williams seemed to suggest as much when he lauded Grandal for committing to the White Sox early and allowing them to tackle other tasks. Then again, Hahn said something similar after the Frazier trade …

Hahn also said the Sox aren’t done adding and that they hope to fill the gap Thompson leaves by spring. There has been speculation the Sox could jump into markets for top-name free-agent outfielders, such as Justin Upton and Yoenis Cespedes.

“We certainly feel better than we did at the end of the season,” Hahn said. “(But) the way we approach things, we are not satisfied.”

… and that never materialized.

That said, teams typically don’t invest heavily in a 31-year-old catcher with no higher goals, so the signing replenishes Hahn’s body armor for the time being. A rehashing of the 2015-16 offseason at this time might feel like reopening old wounds given the celebratory circumstances, but it’s just worth reiterating why the Sox shouldn’t let the initial excitement stagnate.

Long story short, Hahn and Williams should be congratulated for signing Yasmani Grandal, and now they should have every motivation to add Yasmani impact players as possible.

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