Buehrle wants to start, finish with White Sox
The White Sox have four key players with uncertain futures due to contractual considerations, and they all have a common denominator.
Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski, Freddy Garcia and Bobby Jenks played on the Sox' 2005 World Series champion club.
Free agents at the end of the season, Konerko and Pierzynski are most likely to return to the White Sox. The same cannot be said of Garcia, also eligible for free agency, and Jenks, who has one more year of salary arbitration.
Should all four fail to return, only one player will be left from the World Series champs starting pitcher Mark Buehrle.
"I'd like to see some of these guys back, but that's not my decision," Buehrle said. "I'm just a player. I'm not the one writing out the checks, and I don't know what it's going to cost to sign guys like that. I'm glad I don't own a team so I don't have to do that stuff."
Buehrle is still preparing to make his final start of the season Saturday, but the veteran left-hander is hoping either Lucas Harrell or Carlos Torres feels rested enough to take the mound against the Cleveland Indians.
Looking ahead to 2011, Buehrle enters the final season of a four-year, $56 million contract.
In spring training, he talked about retiring at the end of the deal to spend more time with his family back home in St. Charles, Mo.
Before Wednesday's game against Boston at U.S. Cellular Field, the 31-year-old workhorse told the Daily Herald he's leaning toward one more contract, and he hopes it's with the White Sox.
"I have to be healthy to be able to pitch beyond next year and somebody's got to want me," Buehrle said. "There are a lot of things that go into it.
"But I think it would be cool to stay with one team my whole career because it doesn't happen very often in sports in general, not just baseball.
"I've always said the White Sox gave me the opportunity to fulfill a dream; they drafted me in the 38th round (in 1998), the 600th player taken or whatever it was.
"Other teams had a chance to take me, and nobody did. They all took passes on me and the White Sox gave me an opportunity. I feel like I have to give back to the organization that took a chance on me. I would love to finish my career here."
Buehrle also would love to be preparing for his fourth trip to the playoffs, but the Sox crumbled down the stretch and the Minnesota Twins blew right on by.
"A lot of ups and downs this year, but more downs," Buehrle said of the season. "We struggled so bad in the beginning, put ourselves in a big hole. But we came back and got to first place and got everybody excited and we fell on our face again. I think you have to look at how Minnesota played.
"If Minnesota didn't play as well as they did, if they would have come down to earth a little bit and played like everybody else did, I think it would have given us a better chance. They just kept winning and winning and winning."
Can the White Sox get past the Twins next season?
"There are obviously guys out there that are going to be free agents that everybody wants, but it costs money and giving up prospects in trades and everything else," Buehrle said. "I think we had the talent here to win this year, but we didn't put it all together."
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