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The White Sox wrapped up their contracts for arbitration-eligible players by signing Jeff Samardzija and Tyler Flowers to one-year deals on Friday, and the last two deals put them a little bit over MLB Trade Rumors' projected total:
| Actual | Projected | |
| Dayan Viciedo | $4.4M | $4.4M |
| Javy Guerra | $937,500 | $1.3M |
| Hector Noesi | $1.95M | $1.9M |
| Nate Jones | $660,000 | $600,000 |
| Tyler Flowers | $2.675M | $2.1M |
| Jeff Samardzija | $9.8M | $9.5M |
| Total | $20.4225M | $19.8M |
Cot's says the White Sox payroll is at $111,239,167 with 16 players under contract, plus Jeff Keppinger's $4.5 million salary. The real-feel running total is $109,739,167, because John Danks is actually making $14.25 million (Cot's tacks on $1.5 million to his annual salaries as the prorated portion of his signing bonus, but that was paid in the first year of his deal).
Assuming the other nine roster spots will go to players making near the league minumum, and that brings the payroll close to $115 million. That figure represents a sizable bump from their $90 million payroll in 2014, but the Sox spent more in 2013, 2011 and 2008, so it's not like they have done anything especially crazy. Add Max Scherzer to that, and now you're talking crazy.
While the arb-eligible Sox didn't even get to the point of exchanging ideas of their worth, the Royals are at that point with seven players:
#Royals arb figures via AP: Cain asked $3.6M/Royals counter $2M Duffy $3M/$1.75M Dyson $1.6M/$900K Herrera $1.9M/$1.15M Holland $9M/$6.65M
— Chris Fickett (@ChrisFickett) January 17, 2015
Continued: Hosmer $6.7M/$4.6M Moustakas $3.1M/$1.85M
— Chris Fickett (@ChrisFickett) January 17, 2015
Jordan Danks was designated for assignment on Jan. 8, moments before the Chicago Bears announced the hiring of Ryan Pace as their new general manager.
Danks was claimed by the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday, moments before it was reported that the Bears had hired John Fox as their new head coach.
So, Danks' White Sox career died as it lived -- overshadowed by other things.
He deserved one more honest-to-goodness chance to stick in the big leagues, but with Emilio Bonifacio and J.B. Shuck around, he was going to have a hard time getting one in Chicago. So he took the Casper Wells Highway to Philadelphia, where he has a reasonable shot at of winning a job as a backup for Ben Revere.
He leaves behind a genuine highlight in REDDICKDUDNMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...
... a genuine lowlight in getting picked off second to end a game ...
... and a photo that Steve_p will have a hard time finding use for again:
Grilling out with Jordan Danks at our apartment. Gotta love having an evening to enjoy pic.twitter.com/QWI0PPuynQ
— Josh Phegley (@JoshPhegley) August 12, 2013