advertisement

Imrem: Have Sox awakened the echoes of 2005?

Talk about Christmas coming early?

White Sox fans woke up Tuesday morning and found two prize packages under their tree.

Wow, first the Sox signed former Yankees' closer David Robertson for $46 million over four years.

Then, wow-wow, the Sox followed up by trading three young players to Oakland for Jeff Samardzija.

Or can we call him Jeff Soxmardzija now?

Now this is what rebuilding should look like. It's signing a major-league-ready Cuban like Jose Abreu; it's trading for major-league-ready prospects like Adam Eaton and Avisail Garcia; it's signing veteran major leaguers like Zach Duke and Adam LaRoche; it's acquiring major-league-already pitchers like Robertson and Samardzija.

The White Sox might not win anything. The younger guys might not become what they're expected to be. The older guys might be used up.

But the Sox' recent moves smack a little of the winter of 2004-2005, when the Sox were active in all national and international player markets.

All of a sudden the Sox added A.J. Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Scott Podsednik, Tadahito Iguchi, some pitching depth …

Bingo! ... the Sox won the World Series that October.

That was a once-in-forever sequence of events. Plucking players from here, there and everywhere in essentially one off-season to win a championship is improbable.

But it isn't impossible. Kenny Williams proved that with one of the most remarkable general-managing performances ever.

So, it does happen. Will it happen again on the South Side? Unlikely, but you can't say never.

Maybe that explains why Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf refused to give the Blue Jays permission to interview Williams for the job of CEO.

Reinsdorf just might feel something big is happening with the White Sox, just might feel a vibe grabbing him around the neck and reviving him instead of suffocating him.

When Reinsdorf said “the time isn't right” to let Williams go, it didn't make sense, but perhaps it does now.

One guess is that Reinsdorf didn't consider Toronto the right place for Williams at this time. Another guess is that he sees a chance for the Sox to win something significant sooner than later.

Toward that end, it does the Sox no good to break up the management team of Williams, an executive vice president overseeing the operation, and Rick Hahn, the general manager making the moves.

The Sox were moving in the right direction even before taking their shots — Bang! Bang! — with Robertson and Samardzija. Slowly but urgently, the Sox have been filling holes in a team that lost 99 games in 2013.

However, judging by the reaction here and elsewhere, these latest moves are the ones that lift the Sox into contention in the American League Central.

The fading Tigers are going to have to counter in some way. The Royals are retooling after playing in the World Series. The Indians are trying to do better than what the Sox are doing. The Twins are coming but remain a ways away.

So the Sox are contenders in the division, or at worst a wild card, and any team that makes the playoffs these days is a contender for a championship.

That's getting ahead of the game, of course, but attribute the accelerated heartbeat to the Sox making some splashes after failing to make even a ripple since their last postseason appearance a half-dozen seasons ago.

It'll be interesting to see whether what the Sox have done — whether anything they can do — will awaken the echoes of 2005.

To say nothing of in the process awakening their perpetually dormant fan base.

There are 12 days of Christmas for Hahn and Williams to pick out more gifts.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.