Granderson to White Sox Rumors Persist
MLB Trade Rumors has mentioned Dan Hayes’ article about the White Sox and Curtis Granderson a couple of times today. The balance seems to be between the White Sox’ severe crush on Curtis Granderson, person and player, and his price tag. Curtis Granderson is universally agreed to be a delightful individual off the field – charming, intelligent, and good-natured.
His career .261/.340/.488 line would have been both the best OBP and SLG on the 2013 White Sox. Granderson’s defense in center field is rather questionable, but he’s certainly plus in the corners. Granderson has also been projected to command something like three years and $48 million, which sounds about right, particularly given that Shane Victorino got three years, $39 million. Given that Granderson has turned down a qualifying offer from the Yankees, if the White Sox sign him they would have to give up their No. 3 pick in the seconnd round.
Three guesses as to whether Viciedo is striking out or going deep. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. (Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports)
There are other costs to be considered. We already tried to speculate as to what we would do if running the show this offseason. Something we kept running into is that for all that the White Sox position players are an inadequate mess, it’s also a cluttered mess and adding new pieces means clearing some away. For example, signing Curtis Granderson would mean that one of Alejandro de Aza and Dayan Viciedo would have to go. I have not made much of a secret of the fact that I think Viciedo is pretty much the player he’s going to be at this point, and that that player is not good enough to start on a competing team. On the other hand, given their relative ages and team investments, I would expect the White Sox come down on the other side of that choice.
Our staff tried digging around for places that would take Viciedo in a trade. One of those destinations vanished today with the Phillies’ signing of Marlon Byrd. It’s an even more difficult exercise for me, as I am having a hard time seeing him taking any further development steps forward – the very reason I think they should jettison Viciedo is the same reason I don’t see any team that would want to trade for him.
I could see a more robust market for Alejandro De Aza. A plus defensive corner outfielder who has been an effective regular at a low price. For example, in the AL East I could see the Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles all having room for him. Then again, as Marlon Byrd and Nate McLouth (and indeed, De Aza himself) have demonstrated, it is that competent outfielders are often freely available.
You have run into this issue if you have played fantasy baseball or football when someone offers you 2 players for 1. You then have to find someone to cut to make room for the second player, and that impacts the calculus of what you are doing.
The price tag and draft pick are the most significant barriers to signing Curtis Granderson – but it would probably also force the team to get rid of someone.