Rozner: Frazier a good start for White Sox
In a vacuum, the White Sox made a very good deal Wednesday morning.
They got a power-hitting third baseman in exchange for three prospects, only one of whom is likely to be more than an extra player.
Todd Frazier will help the Sox at the plate, on the field and in the clubhouse, bringing life to a dead roster.
There is little doubt about any of that, and general manager Rick Hahn did a nice job picking up a good player at a position of need since Joe Crede's back went out in 2008, save the half season Gordon Beckham played there in 2009.
Now in his prime at 29 years old, Frazier will enjoy another hitter-friendly park and he costs only $7.5 million in 2016. If hard-throwing Frankie Montas develops into a beast, well, that's the price you pay for power.
But beyond the trade itself remain many questions about what the Sox will be in 2016 and what they intend to be going forward.
Considering the misery of 2015, you have to think the Sox are not done shopping or dealing, with Alex Gordon particularly appealing for a team that was so bad at the actual playing of baseball last season.
They had so many failures at so many positions that upgrades are worth considering virtually everywhere among the position players.
To make a move in the Central, the Sox might need to ensure that Gordon doesn't go back to Kansas City.
That's something they can control.
What they can't control is whether Avy Garcia and Brett Lawrie will finally play to their potential.
What they can't control is whether Melky Cabrera and Adam LaRoche will bounce back from a forgettable 2015.
What they can't control is whether Adam Eaton can figure out how to play good baseball every day, not once a week.
What they can't control is whether the lineup will produce enough to allow Tyler Saladino to just relax and play a solid shortstop, something he showed he could do in a limited amount of time. Hey, the kid knows how to play the game and that's a bonus on this team.
What they can't control is whether a pair of new veteran catchers - Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro - can do any better than what they've had behind the plate the last few seasons.
What they can't control is whether Carlos Rodon and Erik Johnson will take big steps forward, big enough to fill out a rotation that can compete with the Royals, Tigers, Indians and Twins.
It's a lot to ask based on what we saw last summer, but the beaten favorite that won the previous winter is sometimes a good bounce-back play the following season.
What you can probably stop doing is asking when the Sox will tear it up and rebuild from scratch. It's just not what the Sox have done under Jerry Reinsdorf since the 1997 "White Flag" trade, and the GM can only work with the instructions he's given.
Hahn is a serious guy and serious about his job. The path they take is not his call, so he does the best he can under the circumstances. He doesn't make deals to procure headlines and he doesn't try to compete with the Cubs, who endured a brutal rebuild to become the national darlings.
The Sox are the Sox and they have been operating this way for the last 15 years. It is precisely how they built a World Series champion and that is easily forgotten when they have seasons like the last one.
All too frequently, narratives are chosen to represent the Sox that simply aren't reality, looked at through a prism belonging to other clubs - often the one on the North Side of Chicago.
This is what the Sox are and there's no reason to think they will operate any other way until such time as ownership directs it or ownership changes.
That being the case, in a vacuum the Sox made a good deal Wednesday and they are better because of it.
As for what it means bigger picture, they were an awful team in 2015 and need almost an entire lineup to rebound in order to compete in 2016.
They will roll the dice and hope they find much better fortune next season. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it's going to be.
They are the Sox, and this is what they do.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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