Chris Sabo didn’t want to be on the 1995 White Sox, and it showed

Chris Sabo Cincinnati Reds circa 1988

Homegrown success stories drove the White Sox’s ascent into World Series contenders during the early 1990s, as an incredible run of first-round draft picks — Jack McDowell, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas and Alex Fernandez — coalesced into a young core that began peaking at the same time.

But GM Ron Schueler also helped the White Sox get over the hump and into the playoffs by riding a winning streak with veteran patches. In 1993, he found Ellis Burks to do the heavy lifting in right field, and Bo Jackson helped bring some power to the flagging DH spot manned by the fading George Bell. When Burks departed for big three-year contract in Colorado, and neither Jackson nor Bell were worth their gripes, Schueler turned to Darrin Jackson and Julio Franco. Both enjoyed previous success, but both had questions about their health — Graves’ disease for Jackson, knee surgery for Franco — so Schueler got both at depressed prices.

Again, Schueler went 2-for-2 during the strike-shortened season of 1994. Both played so well, in fact, that that Schueler couldn’t or wouldn’t retain either for 1995. Franco, facing labor instability stateside, couldn’t pass up an opportunity to reunite with his former manager Bobby Valentine in Japan. Jackson eventually followed him overseas, as he was displeased by the White Sox’s unwillingness to offer contracts to any free agents before the labor impasse was settled. He also found an NPB contract that far exceeded what the Sox were willing to offer.

With Jerry Reinsdorf cutting costs after the strike, Schueler once again had to return to the bargain bin.

For right field, he chose Mike Devereaux, who overcame an awful first impression on Opening Day to replace Jackson stat for stat, at least before the Sox traded him to the Braves in August.

  • Jackson, 1994: 104 G, .312/.362/.455, 17 2B, 3 3B, 10 HR, 51 RBI, 2.7 WAR
  • Devereaux, 1995: 92 G, .306/.352/.465, 21 2B, 1 3B, 10 HR, 55 RBI, 1.8 WAR

During and after Devereaux’s brief Sox career, excellent part-time contributions from Dave Martinez, Lyle Mouton and Warren Newson actually helped the Sox improve upon production in right field as a unit.

RFGPA2B3BHRRBIBA/OBP/SLGfWAR
19941134802411358.296/339/.4432.3
19951456073831576.300/.360/.4635.4


So that’s one position. How about DH? Well, when looking at the aggregate numbers from the position, it looks like Schueler similarly succeeded in replacing Franco. The math is simple:

DHGPA2B3BHRRBIBA/OBP/SLGfWAR
19941135141921893.296/.389/.4723.1
19951456572501884.283/.387/.4305.7


The story was anything but.

For one, Peak Frank Thomas produced enough to prop up two positions. He made 54 appearances at DH after just 13 the year before, so the Sox effectively borrowed some WAR from first base to supplement DH.

Everything around the Big Hurt’s production was kind of a big pain. Franco not only offered a career year during his truncated season on the South Side, but he also brought simplicity to the White Sox lineup card. Here are the lists of players who recorded more than five plate appearances at DH in 1994 and 1995.

DHs in 1994

  • Julio Franco, 447 PA
  • Frank Thomas, 59

DHs in 1995

So while DH was technically fine when looking only at the line, 231 plate appearances from 1995 Frank Thomas could make any position palatable, at least offensively. Let’s pretend Thomas could play shortstop, and use those 231 plate appearances at DH to supplement Ozzie Guillen‘s .588 OPS in 1995.

  • Guillen: .248/.270/.318 over 433 PA
  • Plus Frank: .255/.320/.361 over 665 PA

So it was a luxury to have Thomas as a Plan C, especially with the underrated Martinez also providing cromulent backup production at first base.

Plan A and Plan B at DH dissolved in fairly short order. Moreover, the path of their White Sox careers embodied the awkwardness of the return from the strike, so much so that they deserve separate posts.

Plan A: Chris Sabo

Let’s first skip back a year in order to better understand the shoes Sabo attempted to fill. In December of 1993, Schueler took a chance on a 35-year-old Franco, whose only offer was an incentive-laden $1 million deal due to knee surgery for the second consecutive offseason.

Franco responded with his best year in terms of run production, which put him in position for a bigger payday. It just so happened to come from Japan, as the Chiba Lotte Marines offered him an NPB-record $3.5 million. Franco couldn’t pass it up, especially considering the uncertain future of Major League Baseball.

The Chicago Tribune from Dec. 22, 1994, said the White Sox made a superficial attempt to retain Franco.

Reinsdorf offered Franco a guaranteed two-year deal with an option for a third year. But the offer wasn’t even in the same ballpark as the one from Japan.

“It was more dollars and cents than length of contract,” said Berry. “The gap was significant.”

Schueler agreed. Asked if the Sox were close to the Japanese offer, he just laughed. And kept laughing. “Wait’ll you see the numbers.” And he laughed again.

Thomas sensed the Sox were flirting with danger by looking elsewhere for a designated hitter, and he took the unusual step of having his PR team send a fax to every media outlet in Chicago reading:

“I am extremely disappointed that the White Sox were unable to sign Julio Franco to play for the White Sox in 1995. After a breakthrough year for the White Sox this past season, I see this as a very serious setback to our goal of becoming the next World Series champion. After losing Jack McDowell and now Julio, both front-line superstars, it will be difficult to compete with a young, hungry Cleveland team that has been reloading players since the strike. I really feel it’s a shame and huge step backwards.”

The White Sox didn’t jump on replacing Franco. Unlike other teams, the White Sox refrained from signing free agents until the new baseball economy was established, which means they didn’t start addressing the sizable holes on their roster until April.

Free agents like Devereaux and Sabo didn’t have a spring training camp to report to, so they congregated in Homestead, Fla., with other free agents who collectively called themselves the “Homestead Homies” until a proper team picked them up.

The Sox officially replaced Jackson with Devereaux on April 8, signing the former Oriole on a make-good contract for $800,000. Three days later, the White Sox settled on Sabo, signing the former Oriole on a make-good contract for $550,000.

Sabo was coming off a disappointing year in Baltimore, which was his first attempt at forging his name outside of Cincinnati. He was something of a local legend with the Reds, with whom he made three All-Star teams, won Rookie of the Year and a World Series ring.

Sabo came into White Sox spring training in Sarasota, Fla., sour about his time in Baltimore, and displeased about a pay cut after signing a $2 million deal with the Orioles the year before. He wasn’t the Sox’s first choice, as they first pursued John Kruk, Mark Grace and Mickey Tettleton. Sabo told the Chicago Tribune on April 26 that the Sox weren’t his first choice, either.

“It’s hit and run now,” Sabo said. “Hit and run with Baltimore last year and hit and run here with the White Sox. Who knows? I always said I wanted to go back to Cincinnati. I tried to go back there this year. They didn’t want me.

“It ticks you off. I helped out a lot of years there, and I’m still better than any third baseman they’ve got over there. That’s what makes me mad. It’d be different if they had ‘Boggsy’ (Wade Boggs) or someone like that. That’s a prime example. They knew they could pay (rookie Willie Greene) the minimum. They know they’re not getting the better player, but they’re going to go with it. It’s crazy. It doesn’t make sense.”

While you might chalk up the bile to the economic conditions surrounding the labor stoppage, it wasn’t necessarily a product of the strike. Chris Sabo’s mid-1990s existence could be captured by simple conditional statement:

IF Chris Sabo wasn't a Cincinnati Red
THEN Chris Sabo was bitter

The Baltimore Sun wondered if Sabo protested too much during his introductory press conference in January 1994.

In less than 30 minutes yesterday, Chris Sabo may have set a baseball record for happy talk.

Making his first visit to Camden Yards since signing with the Orioles as a free agent Jan. 14, Sabo repeatedly used the same phrase to describe his feelings. “I’m really happy,” he said at virtually every opportunity.

Everybody might have had a reason to be suspicious, because Sabo only ended up in Baltimore after reportedly overestimating his hand in Cincinnati. He’d reportedly rejected a two-year, $6.4 million contract extension, as well as a one-year, $2.5 million deal. Granted, Sabo was set to make $4 million in arbitration, so one could understand why he wasn’t impressed with either offer at the time. After he failed to succeed elsewhere, he said the offer was taken off the table before he got a chance to accept it. Looking at his stats now, he was an average-at-best third baseman since suffering and returning from an ankle injury. It reduced his speed, which previously made him unique at the position. He didn’t figure to get faster in his age-32 season.

It didn’t take long for Sabo’s alleged happiness to fade. He battled a sore back early and eventually lost his starting job at third base to a red-hot Leo Gomez. He didn’t accept getting outplayed as a legitimate reason, the Orioles refused to grant Sabo’s wishes to be demoted to the minors, and he spent the rest of the strike-shortened season bouncing between third base and the outfield. He did make a few appearances at DH, a position he considered heretical.

“The DH is not baseball,” Sabo said. “Nothing against those who are DHs, but DH isn’t a job. Baseball is hitting and fielding. The DH bats three or four times and watches TV.”

Sabo has not made a trade request, but said he probably will in the next couple of days.

“I’m sure it’ll probably come to that,” Sabo said. “I don’t play second fiddle to anybody. Mike Schmidt retired.”

Sabo did not get traded during the season, and he did not retire afterward. He instead accepted a one-year contract to play for the White Sox.

As the primary DH.

And it went about as well as you’d expect.

* * * * * * * * *

As Sabo’s career path drifted even further from his wishes — which could be summed up as “starting third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds” — he became increasingly aggrieved.

The strike didn’t help matters, and Sabo had some points when he talked to the Chicago Tribune about a market that wasn’t exactly run on merit.

“A lot of it has nothing to do with ability. There are a lot of other factors involved-money, age, that kind of stuff. How you fit in somewhere. It used to be about getting the best available people. It’s not like that anymore.

“It’s un-American, as far as I’m concerned. Why settle for second best? If you had a chance to get the best, well, try to get him.”

But it’s hard to separate that from Sabo’s fervent belief that he belonged in Cincinnati. Remember when he mentioned Willie Greene above? Well, here’s an even unhealthier quote in the April 24, 1995, edition of The Sporting News:

[Reds] General Manager Jim Bowden passed, citing economics. Says Sabo, “It’s not economics. They just don’t want me.” He left for Baltimore as a free agent before 1994 but wanted to return to compete with phenom Willie Greene. […] Bowden loves to stockpile talent and fuel competition, and watching Sabo on a quest would have been fun. “I’d love to compete with Willie Greene,” Sabo says. “There’s no way he’d beat me out. I’d guarantee it. There’s nothing he could do now that’s better than me. He couldn’t a year ago. He couldn’t two years ago.”

And that was Sabo after he’d found a job. Here’s what The Sporting News reported him saying in its April 8 edition:

Sabo, cut loose by the Orioles, says he wonders why two other third basemen, Terry Pendleton and Charlie Hayes, with 1994 numbers similar to his, succeeded in landing deals. [Sabo] suspects he acquired a label last season in complaining about being asked to play the outfield. As a result, the Orioles did not play Sabo regularly. […]

“Seems like the guys who get contracts are the drug addicts and guys who cause problems,” Sabo says. Ï was supposed to be a big problem-causer last year. So that should help me get a contract.”

“I just want to play. I told my agent, ‘Find me a place where they let me play and leave me alone.’ Obviously, last year was a bad situation. My only condition is that I play. Finances never have motivated me. If it did, I would have signed with the Mets last year.”

Sabo apparently had some limits on his self-assurance. While he previously compared his status to that of Mike Schmidt and Wade Boggs, he seemed to understand that Robin Ventura was the superior option at third base, so he wasn’t entirely delusional. He even expressed reservations about properly replacing Franco. From the April 24 edition of The Sporting News:

“If people are expecting Julio Franco numbers, I don’t know. He had a good year,” Sabo says. “But if I’m healthy, I’ll hit 20, 25 homers and drive in 80.”

In 1995, Sabo hit one homer and drove in 11.

* * * * * * * * *

At least the homer was cool. Sabo delivered a go-ahead pinch-hit two-run blast off Minnesota’s Mark Guthrie in the eighth inning of an 8-7 White Sox winner on May 10.

The euphoria was short-lived. Sabo homered on a Wednesday. On Thursday, the White Sox traveled to Seattle. On Friday, the White Sox announced the signing of John Kruk.

The writing was on the wall, because the White Sox targeted Kruk before the season, when Kruk considered himself retired. He marketed himself as an everyman who never took conditioning seriously, but he’d also battled bad knees and a bout with testicular cancer during the previous season, so his body had been through more than most. Throw in a work stoppage, and Kruk was cool to the Sox’s initial overtures. Once the season started, Kruk realized he still had a little want left in him, and he reached out to the Sox to see if they remained interested.

They were, because even after Sabo’s dramatic first and only White Sox homer, he was hitting just .255/.280/.383 as the primary DH and cleanup hitter behind Thomas. He theoretically had a little bit of leeway remaining as Kruk reported to extended spring training, but Sabo provided 29 plate appearances of the same before the White Sox cut him loose.

To muster a defense of Sabo, he probably didn’t have a chance at succeeding in Chicago. Besides Thomas bemoaning the loss of his previous protector to set the tone, Schueler also mismarketed Sabo as somebody who could provide more speed and fewer strikeouts from the cleanup spot, which sounded like sour grapes after Tettleton wouldn’t lower his demands.

But in his view from his perch as the national baseball writer for the Baltimore Sun, Ken Rosenthal saw the Sabo signing as Schueler taking his heat check a player too far.

It’s mind-boggling enough that the White Sox chose Sabo to replace Julio Franco as their DH. It’s even more mind-boggling that they plan to bat Sabo cleanup — behind Frank Thomas.

Based on Sabo’s introduced himself as a member of the White Sox, it’s probably fair to say that his heart wasn’t in it from the start …

The 33-year-old Sabo, an unexcitable kind of guy, was characteristically matter-of-fact while unpacking his car trunk upon arrival at the Sox camp.

“It beats the alternative,” he said, referring to unemployment.

… and based on what he said after the White Sox signed Kruk, nothing was going to make Chicago appealing. There’s so much insanity from this wire article that ran in the May 17, 1995 edition of the Dayton Daily News that you should just read the whole thing.

Wed, May 17, 1995 – 7 · Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

What would people not have understood? Why he was still fighting a positional battle for a team he hasn’t played for in years, instead of defending either of the last two jobs at which he failed? Why he was mad that his former employer let one of its current employees use his number? What was so great about Cincinnati?

* * * * * * * * *

Sabo eventually received both his wishes. After the White Sox released him, he latched on briefly with the St. Louis Cardinals. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for its July 18, 1995 edition that the American League wasn’t for him:

“The American League has some mashers. They’ve got some dudes that can flat-out hit.”

What irked Sabo was that, “It’s more base-to-base over there. It’s more laid-back. Players here are more aggressive, tenacious, run-steal.

“In my two years over there, there were not as many arguments with umpires as we had in Cincinnati.”

But he couldn’t cut it over there, either. He played in just five games for the Cardinals, going 2-for-13 with a double and a walk before St. Louis released in September.

After the season, Sabo returned to the only place that made him happy. He signed a minor-league deal with the Reds, parlaying it into an Opening Day job over the guy he obsessed over, Willie Greene.

The victory was short-lived. Greene ended up outplaying Sabo, breaking out by hitting .244/.327/.495 with 19 homers. Sabo only played 54 mediocre games, and was busted for using a corked bat in July.

He only came to the plate three more times over the rest of the season. All ended in strikeouts.

* * * * * * * * *

The strike made the White Sox’s decision-makers a touch insane for years, and Sabo is one of the players who best represents the consequences of the brain worms that plagued the front office. Rosenthal’s accurate assessment shows that hindsight was not required to identify the flaws in the idea, and Sabo wasted no time proving his active disinterest.

Julio Franco was productive and cool as hell, and the White Sox replaced him with a guy who 1) sucked, and 2) was fine with it because playing for a team besides the Reds didn’t count.

The danger was apparent to anybody who had paid attention, but Sabo had a track record and could settle for a $550,000 contract, which seemed to be all that mattered. The spite-laced quotes from Reinsdorf and Schueler about multi-million contracts reflect a front office that regarded with contempt players who knew their worth and wanted their fair share. That left only players who had to repair their worth (Devereaux), or players who stopped having worth.

The White Sox had more playable options than Sabo, which makes the idea of installing him behind Frank Thomas all the more confusing. Fortunately, Kruk rallied in a hurry and joined the White Sox to cut short the Sabo experiment after a month. At least until Kruk also lost his desire to play.

(Photo of Chris Sabo by Owen C. Shaw/ICON SMI)

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Patrick Nolan

The best John Kruk content:

asinwreck

Sabo is one of the players who best represents the consequences of the brain worms that plagued the front office

He is the perfect player to use to discuss the futility of the 1995 Sox. Bad, miserable, and (other than Jim Abbott’s amiable competence) unpleasant to watch.

Still wasn’t the worst move Schueler made. I am dreading Jim’s post on the decision to promote Terry Bevington.

Greg Nix

Great post, Jim. I see shades of the Jim Thome/Mark Kotsay debacle here, as well. Why is it so hard for this organization to make straightforward baseball decisions?

Ted Mulvey

Just dropping in to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this post. Really interesting.

GrinnellSteve

I had conveniently forgotten Sabo ever wore a Sox uniform. What a jerk.

Good article, though.

MarketMaker

The Sox have, in my lifetime at least, seemingly always loved a washed-up old former star that they can get on the cheap.
It sucks.

asinwreck

It is a longstanding Sox tradition going back to the beginning of the franchise, and fodder for some great Sporcle trivia in Ted Mulvey’s quizzes.

Josh Nelson

Chris Sabo would have given us pretty good fodder for weeks on the podcast.

humberpie

The idea of a podcast being done “at the time” for past white sox season sounds absolutely amazing. Keep the format like you would normally and speculate about future series while talking details of current series.

MrTopaz

After giving it some thought, I think ’95 Chris Sabo is the only person I’ve ever heard voice a positive opinion about Cincinnati that was stronger than, “… It’s Cincinnati, so… I guess?”

And I don’t mean to slag on Cincinnati. It’s just the Delaware of mid-sized rustbelt cities.

ThisReallySox

Great article Jim. Reinsdorf wasted some prime Big Frank over a little money

As Cirensica

Good reading. Didn’t know Sabo was such “nice” player to be around.

palkadance

Yeah, that was an incredibly entertaining post. I am loving this deep dive into the dysfunction of the 1995 Sox. Fascinating!

Willardmarshall

If you wanted to be really generous you could frame it as a success story. He did finally (if briefly) make it back to Cincinnati — and as starting third baseman….