Danks Makes Bank With New Deal
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 22, 2011 4:40PM
While Derrick Rose's five-year, $94 million contract extension was the largest chunk of change committed to by Jerry Reinsdorf, the Bulls and White Sox chairman also opened up the purse strings to keep another of his employees under contract for the next half decade. The White Sox announced on Wednesday night that they had agreed to a five-year, $65 million extension with starting pitcher John Danks.
Such a large pay day is a bit surprising considering Danks was only 8-12 with a 4.33 ERA in 2011, his worst season since he was a rookie. In five years with the Sox, he is 54-56 with a 4.03 ERA and has averaged 183.2 innings of work per season. It's also surprising considering that the Sox seemed unwilling to pay big bucks when longtime ace Mark Buehrle was testing the free agent market earlier this offseason. The Sox appeared to make little effort to bid on Buehrle, who ended joining Ozzie Gullen with the Miami Marlins for $58 million over four years. Granted, Buehrle is 32 while Danks is 26, but Buehrle has proven to be one of the most durable and consistent pitchers over the past decade, as well as a leader on and off the field.
Danks earned $6 million last season, and was eligible for arbitration this winter so he likely would have seen s significant bump in pay. He was to become a free agent after the 2012 season. There had been persistent rumors that the Sox were trying to trade the pitcher as they looked to trim payroll, as well as fears of losing him in free agency without compensation. Now that he's locked up, do the Sox foresee him stepping into the role Buehrle filled for so many years at the top of the rotation? Or will they still try to move him now that an acquiring team has the security that he'd be a long term acquisition?