With the White Sox's payroll nearly maxed out, creative ways for the Sox to shed some money to improve the team's bullpen have been bandied about in the last few days.
There's the ongoing War of Carlos Quentin between Joe Cowley and everybody else fought over whether the Sox are "shopping" their right fielder. Having Kenny Williams find a way to deal Mark Teahen is another idea that's been kicked around, however unlikely.
And then there's this: The White Sox will listen to offers on Mark Buehrle.
Okay, that's obvious. There's a big difference between listening—which Williams and every other general manager in baseball do with any player—and shopping. Shopping a player means a team is actively trying to trade a player, like how the White Sox were shopping Nick Swisher and Javier Vazquez after the 2008 season. Listening means taking into consideration offers on players, but not actively trying to get said player off your team.
I guess first of all, it doesn't seem like ground-breaking reporting when a journalist says a team will "listen" on a player. No player is untradable if the right offer comes along. Buehrle is not untradable, and if the right offer comes along, Williams would be foolish to not accept it.
The thing is, that right offer won't come along for Buehrle.
While Buehrle's contract escalator (which would've increased his contract to $15 million a year and added a fifth year at that price if he was traded) went away when Buehrle gained 10-and-5 no-trade rights July 15, that he has full no-trade right severely limits his market.
Would Buehrle accept a trade to New York or Boston? Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it. St. Louis or somewhere else in the Midwest? He almost certainly would accept a trade there to stay close to his family. But—this is an educated guess, mind you—it's tough to see Buehrle accepting a trade to an eastern or western city.
That general Midwest framework doesn't leave many options, especially if the Sox aren't willing to deal Buehrle within the division. We'll throw out teams that aren't likely to win in 2011, too—so the Cubs, Astros, and Pirates are all not reasonable. That leaves the Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, and Rangers are potential options.
Of those, the Brewers and Rangers make the most sense. If Milwaukee misses out on Carl Pavano, they could attempt to trade for Buehrle to go alongside Yovani Gallardo and Shaun Marcum in a revamped rotation.
If the Rangers miss out on Cliff Lee, one year of Buehrle could be appealing, although there's a decent chance Buehrle blocks a trade to Texas.
Further lowering Buehrle's value is his age (32 on opening day 2011) and performance in 2010. His 4.28 ERA was his highest mark since 2006, as was his 1.40 WHIP. His 4.24 K/9 was the lowest of his career and his 2.02 walk-to-strikeout ratio was his lowest since 2003.
Buehrle pitched better than those numbers indicate, though, posting a 3.90 FIP—his best mark since 2005—and a 3.8 WAR. He's been a slight bargain at $14 million for the last two years, and it should be expected for Buehrle to at least be worth his contract in 2011.
It's unlikely that Buehrle will be valued to be worth his contract next year, though. The few interested teams with a realistic shot at trading for him likely won't want to give up much to get him, especially if they know the White Sox are looking for either bullpen help or a salary dump to get bullpen help.
Essentially, all the leverage in trade negotiations would lie with the team with which the Sox are negotiating. If that team got the go-ahead from Buehrle that he'd accept a trade there, they know that it may be the only location to where Buehrle would approve a trade. Furthermore, given Buehrle's salary and arguably-declining skills, that team wouldn't want to part with what would be deemed a fair return. And finally, that the Sox would look into dealing Buehrle to improve their bullpen—possibly through free agency—could lead a team to lowball the Sox to force a salary dump trade.
It's unlikely Williams is willing to trade Buehrle as a salary dump, even in the face of Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn's hefty contracts. If he trades Buehrle, it'll be for at least a fair return, but probably one that would favor the Sox.
And that fair/favorable return is unlikely to materialize.
*****
- The results of Jim's trade poll are in, and not surprisingly, the Nick Swisher/Yankees trade rates the worst.
- The White Sox signed Donny Lucy and Brian Bruney to deals today, pleasing the small-but-vocal Donny Lucy Fan Club and the non-existent Fans of Brian Bruney Organization.
- James looks at who could be traded for bullpen help. He came to this conclusion on Buehrle: "Per his usual policy, Kenny Williams should listen to offers on Buehrle like he listens to offers for all his players, but this would really need to be one hell of an offer."
- Mike channels his inner Jebediah Springfield in analyzing Paul Konerko's contract.
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