I appears as if Jose Contreras will sign a long-term deal with the White Sox in the near future.
"Jose has found a place where he's very happy and successful," agent Jaime Torres said Friday.
With Garland rejecting a 3-year deal, the Sox will almost assuredly sign Contreras for about the same.
[...]
Torres said he spoke "a few days ago" with the Sox and was awaiting an offer.
"It's up to (general manager) Kenny Williams," Torres said. "We're very willing to listen."
From the same article:
The Sox also face a Tuesday night deadline for tendering contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. They are expected to do so to Garland, catcher A.J. Pierzynski, third baseman Joe Crede and utility player Rob Mackowiak.
I can't see there being much market for either Harris or Perez. Willie is a useful player, but nobody is going to pay much for a backup/platoon second baseman. The Cardinals would be a good destination here. Timo, well, he's bad and every team in baseball knows it. Good thing he can speak Japanese.
The Sox may try to trade infielder Willie Harris and outfielder Timo Perez, both eligible for arbitration, before the deadline.
Finally, I don't know whether this is true or not. Buried in a Tracy Ringolsby column in the Rocky Mountain News was this tidbit of info:
Not only is Vazquez younger than Hernandez, but by demanding a trade from Arizona, he cannot become a free agent for five years.
This is probably just a misprint, but I'm honestly not sure. Is it possible that we have three consecutive years where, like the reserve clause, Vazquez can not become a free agent and is arbitration eligible? If so, wow. That's a valuable chip to have. Of course, when he's already making $12M at the end of the contract, if he has a decent season, his arbitration reward is going to be even higher, so they wouldn't be saving much money, if any.