It looks like the White Sox weren't involved in the Winter Meeting's first big blockbuster, but that doesn't mean they weren't making suprising moves, signing Mark Teahen to a 3-year extension. The Sox lone position of depth appears to be third base, the position that Mark Teahen was supposedly brought in to play. They moved Gordon Beckham off third to bring in Teahen, and have both Dayan Viciedo and Brent Morel at the hot corner in the upper minors next year.
When Teahen was brought over from the Royals, the thought was that he was a passable stop-gap, that he could give the Sox a year of average-bat, below-average defense at the hot corner and not cost too much in terms of talent or actual money. But by signing him to a 3-year, $14M extension, the Sox are committing themselves to a player who, with the exception of a breakout 2006 campaign, has proven to be moderately above replacement level everywhere he's played.
I wouldn't go so far as to call Brent Morel trade bait, but this deal makes his name sure to be brought up by any team seeking to make a deal with the Sox.