The Chicago White Sox just can’t stop spending, can they? In what has already been a huge offseason for them, they’ve now gone and made Melky Cabrera their latest in a long line of notable acquisitions.
Source tells me Melky Cabrera agrees to three year deal with WhSox pending physical .
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) December 14, 2014
The deal is expected to be for $45 million or more.
Even with the earlier additions of Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke, David Robertson and Jeff Samardzija, the Pale Hose still weren’t exactly considered major contenders. A big reason for that was that their lineup was still rather thin. Adding Cabrera goes a long way towards fixing that issue as he’ll be taking over left field for Dayan Viciedo, who had an 88 wRC+ last season in addition to being a huge defensive liability. Melky is no defensive wizard himself, but with a 125 wRC+ in 2014, the White Sox have just replaced a sub-replacement level player with a guy who has been worth just under 10 wins over the last four seasons. That’s a big upgrade.
The question now is: are the White Sox done spending? They’ve still got a gaping hole at second base and could use some depth additions just about everywhere else, but this contract is going to put their payroll right around $90 million (their Opening Day payroll last season), before even considered any of their arbitration eligible players, which includes Samardzija.
