Levine: White Sox Can Still Add More Depth After James Shields Deal
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Saturday afternoon's trade acquisition of a 200-inning starter in right-hander James Shields is great news for the White Sox and their fan base. In getting the 34-year-old Shields from the Padres for prospects Erik Johnson and Fernando Tatis Jr., the White Sox have a player who will regularly go two innings deeper into games than anyone besides Chris Sale and Jose Quintana in the rotation.
By getting creative with the dividing of financial burden in the Shields deal -- the White Sox will be responsible for about $26 million of the $58 million left on the contract through 2018 -- Chicago can continue to look for a left-handed bat and left-handed bullpen arm with its middle-market payroll. Perhaps that's even Yankees left-hander Andrew Miller.
The White Sox will be saddled with about $9 million each season through 2018 for the Shields contract. That will put the payroll for this season back up to around $119 million. That's still about $4 million fewer than where the team sat in early March, shortly after which $13 million came off the books when Adam LaRoche suddenly retired. With the $14.25 million of left-hander John Danks coming off of the books after 2016, the White Sox won't be hamstrung by future payroll excesses with this Shields commitment.
Chicago is all in for a playoff push for the next two seasons, so if the farm system takes a hit with that goal in mind, then that will be a trouble to deal with after 2017. In the meantime, winning is more of a concern than the farm system, as the presently constructed roster shows. The fact that 80-year-old chairman Jerry Reinsdorf wants to win now for the fan base and the organization is typical of his aggressive style. He wants the organization to win another championship under his leadership.
Meanwhile, the pitcher that the White Sox acquired Saturday is highly thoughts of in baseball circles. Shields is 2-7 with a 4.28 ERA, the latter statistic skewed badly by an awful most recent outing in which Shields allowed 10 earned runs. Prior to that, he had a 3.06 ERA.
"He is a bulldog," said Cubs right-hander Jason Hammel, who came up with Shields in the Rays organization. "He will battle you on the mound and never want to come out. James is a leader in his own right. He will be there on the days he pitches and cheering his teammates on when he is not on the hill."
Since 2007, Shields leads all of baseball in innings pitched and games started on the mound. He appears to have plenty left in the tank.
"He is the guy who really set up our pitching mentality in Tampa," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who managed Shields for eight seasons. "He has a tremendous work ethic. He set the tone for all of our starters. He was the guy who will be on the top step of the dugout when someone else is pitching, be a great teammate. As a competitor, he will never want to come out of a game.
"He thinks he can beat anybody, and he has really good stuff. Good fastball and a really good change-up. One of the better change-ups for a pitcher I ever had managing. This is not hype. He was the guy that really got himself and the others after it. He was the guy who set the tone in 2008 (in a run to the World Series)."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
