White Sox seek pitching, depth at Winter Meetings
SAN DIEGO -- There's certainly no waiting on the White Sox part for big-ticket players such as Jon Lester to come off the board before they take the next step in their overall reshaping program.
That next step for chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, general manager Rick Hahn, executive vice president Ken Williams and the White Sox front office staff could very well take place at the 2014 Winter Meetings, beginning Monday and running through the Rule 5 Draft on Thursday.
"From our standpoint, if you get to a point on a deal where it makes sense for you, you pull the trigger," said Hahn during a conference call this past Friday. "We tend to place fairly specific values on what we are and aren't willing to do, both for free agents and via trade, and once we're able to reach an agreement at that level with the agent or the other club, we move forward.
"It's not as if we're waiting on anything specific. If in turn certain things happen, and that in turn leads to more fluidity in the market, that's great because obviously some of those things are going to start being ticked off here in the next few days."
A right-handed starting pitcher, a veteran reliever or two and another outfielder stand as some of the White Sox main targets as they take the trip to San Diego. Although they are more than satisfied with Tyler Flowers behind the plate, the White Sox also could explore greater depth at catcher.
"I don't know if I'm ever comfortable with X position because there is always a need to have quality depth in case something goes sideways," Hahn said.
MLB.com will be with White Sox every step of the way during their stay out on the West Coast. We will have breaking news on any move made by the South Siders, and daily reports and video from Hahn's media sessions even if no trades or signings come down. Manager Robin Ventura is scheduled to meet the media at 4 p.m. CT on Tuesday, so look for a rundown of his comments and sentiments to follow thereafter.
The Hall of Fame will announce its voting results from the Golden Era Committee on Monday morning, with the ballot having a decided White Sox flavor. Of the 10 candidates up for discussion and possible induction, Minnie Minoso, Billy Pierce, Dick Allen, Jim Kaat and Ken Boyer all have played previously for the White Sox.
We encourage the readers to be interactive during this Winter Meetings run. Let us hear your comments on White Sox moves or thoughts for potential moves.
Meanwhile, Hahn and company will continue their process to make the White Sox a contender in 2015 and beyond.
"My recollection is that last year's Meetings were pretty quiet," Hahn said. "I seem to recall [the week before] being pretty hyper and the actual Meetings having only a few deals.
"Obviously we were able to do a pretty important move last year with [Adam] Eaton. It seems like given the pace of activity throughout the game that we are poised to have a fairly exciting week in terms of various moves around the league, and hopefully that extends to some of our moves lining up in that time frame as well."