There are a lot of groaning White Sox fans this week as a result of the question as to whether the Sox would resign former designated hitter Jim Thome. Thome was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline last year to give him a chance to win a title with that team. As we all know, that didn’t happen, and the aged slugger remains a free agent, and by all accounts, Thome is a great person, a great teammate and would like to return to his home state of Illinois.
Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen was quoted in the paper that there was no greater fan of Thome than himself other than Thome’s wife, but Guillen nixed the trade for good reason. The stated reason is that Guillen refused to guarantee that Thome would get a large number of at bats, but let’s be honest – if Guillen carries 12 pitchers, which he likes to do, after you get to the eight position players and at least one extra catcher, that leaves 3 roster spots. Thome, as terrific a player as he is and has been, can’t play the field anymore, and is a very slow runner.
The Sox have Mark Kotsay, Andruw Jones, and regular first baseman Paul Konerko who each can play the field, are a little bit faster runners than Thome, and can play the field – giving Guillen many more options, can give the regulars a day off, and can still keep their bats in the lineup. Today’s Tribune says that the White Sox will miss the big thumper in the lineup, and that is true, but I think that the Sox will generate more runs with better base running, than always counting on the home run.
In this case, the local newspapers got ahold of this story and made a mountain out of a molehill, but if you want the White Sox to have a better chance to win, sometimes a tough choice has to be made. I love Jim Thome as a player to – a class act by any criteria and a Hall of Famer, but he may not be best for this team.