So much for the youth movement.
For the second time this week, the White Sox added to their bench depth by signing a player that had his best days during the Bush administration … first term.
On Monday it was 11-time Gold Glove infielder Omar Vizquel and on Wednesday it was 10-time Gold Glove outfielder Andruw Jones. And while that may be a lot of defensive hardware between the two, there’s also a lot of dust that collected the past few years.
Jones agreed to a one-year deal that will give him a base salary of $500,000 with an additional $1 million in performance bonuses.
“This is an opportunity to add a power bat to the roster while improving our outfield depth,” general manager Ken Williams said in a statement. “With the addition of Andruw, Mark Kotsay and Omar Vizquel, we feel our bench is taking shape to be a strong asset heading into the 2010 season.”
That might be the case. But it also served notice that the youth movement that was pursued last season has been somewhat cast aside, as Brent Lillibridge and Jayson Nix will now be hard-pressed to make the roster.
A back-up catcher will give Guillen four players on his bench, and if he carries 12 pitchers as has been his history, well, Nix and Lillibridge will be big assets to the Class AAA Charlotte team.
As for the 32-year-old Jones, he batted .214 with 17 home runs and 43 RBI in 82 games with Texas last season, and is a career .257 hitter with 388 home runs, 1,174 RBI and 1,109 runs scored in 1,918 games with Atlanta (1996-2007), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2008) and the Rangers (2009).
He also has 356 doubles and 143 stolen bases on the resume.
The signing of Jones still doesn’t solve the hole at the leadoff spot, as talks with Scott Podsednik have once again stalled with the two sides still in a staring contest.
The Sox have spoken to representation for Coco Crisp, but a source close to the situation said that Crisp would still be Plan B if things don’t change with Podsednik very soon.