Frank Thomas Done with White Sox, Wearing Yellow Ones Soon?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 8, 2005 9:19PM

Chicagoist still remembers hearing of a hot prospect getting called up to the White Sox in 1990 and rememebrs being in the right field stands at the old Comiskey Park about 20 feet away from a ball that was THIS CLOSE to going out for his first major league homer. He'd end up hitting 7 during that late-season call-upon his way to 448 in a Sox uniform. So it's really hard to believe that following a 16 year run on with the White Sox, Frank Thomas is gone. The team cut ties with the future Hall of Famer on Wednesday by not offering him salary arbitration, making him a free agent. Thomas had spent his entire career on the South Side -- one of the rare players who had remained with their original team for more than 10 years.

While Thomas had wanted to finish his career with the White Sox, there was just no room for him on the roster with the addition of Jim Thome and the re-signing of Paul Konerko. Those two will share the 1B and DH duties that Thomas had filled over the years.

Earlier this off-season, the White Sox chose to pay Thomas a $3.5 million buyout rather than exercise the $10 million option for 2006. Had they not made the Thome trade or brought back Konerko, it was possible the Sox may have tried to re-sign him for less money. But with those two on board, he became expendible.

With the end clearly near, Thomas has been attending MLB's winter meetings in Dallas this week to meet with other clubs who might be interested in his services. One team with interest are the Minnesota Twins -- the Sox's division rival. However, right now it sounds like the Oakland A's are the front runner. As if Oakland hasn't been hard enough to win against for the Sox in recent years.

Would Thomas take out any lingering resentment against the Sox the next time he faces them? While his departure hasn't been as ugly as last year's departure of Magglio Ordonez, there are some differences in opinion regarding the situation. While Sox GM Kenny Williams believes that the team has respected what Thomas meant to the team, Thomas expressed wished that things has been handled better. Long known for his contentious relationship with management, this probably went as smoothly as could have been expected.

While Thomas is gone, his legacy remains. The Big Hurt leaves the Sox as the team's all-time leader in 9 different offensive categories. A career .307 hitter, he hold the team records with with 448 homers and 1,465 RBIs, as well as the record for runs, walks and a number of others. He won two MVP awards while with the Sox (1993 & 1994), narrowly missing a third in 2000.

Will his presence be missed on the South Side? Sadly, probably not as much as it should given the size of his legacy. His two injury-plagues seasons have made it seems as if he's slowly been fading out of the picture for a while and before that he played in the shadows of Sammy Sosa's home run exploits. Hopefully, as time passes and the true extend of steroid-enhanced stats comes to light, fans will again show Big Frank the respect and admiration he deserved but didn't always receive.