White Sox re-sign Tyler Flowers; Dylan Axelrod non-tendered

Well, call off the moderate amount of mid-winter suspense: Tyler Flowers will remain in the fold.

First reported by Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox and Flowers avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year, $950,000 contract. It's more than he deserved, but a little less than MLB Trade Rumors' arbitration estimate of an even $1 million. I'm guessing this means he wouldn't have been non-tendered if they couldn't agree on a pre-deadline deal, but the end result is a minor compromise.

It doesn't compromise the Sox' major-league plans, as we talked about this morning. The only thing this contract guarantees is that Flowers won't be freely available to 29 other teams. Otherwise, we'll have to wait to see the scope of Rick Hahn's offseason plans to understand how this move fits in.

In their media release, the White Sox also announced that they will not tender a contract to Dylan Axelrod, which opens up a spot on the 40-man roster. They have yet to announce decisions on Gordon Beckham, Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza, but they're all on more solid ground.

UPDATE (8:26 p.m.): Or maybe they're calling a mulligan on 2013.

White Sox also have re-signed Hector Gimenez to a Minor League deal

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) December 3, 2013