DownSwinging.com

By now you are no doubt familiar with the fact that Alex Rios was picked up off waivers by the Chicago White Sox. We can draw a few conclusions on the Chicago-end of the deal. No doubt this shows that Kenny Williams wants to win, and is willing to come up with creative ways to make this happen. It also means that the White Sox are taking on a ton of salary, but maybe this is something they are okay with if they are anticipating increased attendance and potential playoff games. It also puts their outfielders, particularly Jermaine Dye, in a bit of a precarious position, and might suggest the Sox aren’t going to exercise their mutual option on the aging Dye. But all of those secondary things, the money and the surplus of outfielders, really don’t matter because the White Sox are committing themselves to putting forward a winning ballclub not just this season but for the next few.

You can’t say the same thing about the Blue Jays though. Now, I’m not criticizing the Jays for letting Rios go, even though they were unable to get any prospects for him. As I’ve said previously, I don’t think Rios is the person they should build their franchise around. More importantly, his contract was an issue. Not necessarily the money, roughly $10 million a year, though heavily backloaded, but rather the years, which would pay him until he was 35, which in the non-steroid era is pretty old. So good move for the Jays to get rid of Rios, and as with all White Sox acquisitions lately, maybe a very good move, maybe not so good.