Sox try to land impact hitter, but Jackson only deadline pickup
It's not as catchy as "Winning Ugly," but general manager Ken Williams touted the concept of "Marginally Better" as the nonwaiver trade deadline came and went Saturday without another White Sox maneuver.
Williams and his staff inquired about injured Los Angeles slugger Manny Ramirez and other "impact-type bats," but so little earnest conversation resulted that Williams ditched the team's war room 30 minutes before the 3 p.m. deadline.
"The players we were interested in, we had zero dialogue on today," Williams said. "Our offers had been out there for quite some time and we just never really engaged - not for lack of effort on our part."
That left Friday's acquisition of starting pitcher Edwin Jackson as the team's only move, though the Sox will keep trying throughout August.
Jackson, who stayed away from U.S. Cellular Field until the deadline passed, will wear No. 33 and make his White Sox debut Wednesday at Detroit.
The hard-throwing 26-year-old right-hander assumes the rotation spot held by Daniel Hudson until he went to Arizona in exchange for Jackson, who has produced a 12-15 record with a 5.12 ERA in 36 starts since throwing a perfect inning in the 2009 All-Star Game while representing the Detroit Tigers.
He issued 60 walks in 1341/3 innings with the Diamondbacks, including 8 free passes in his no-hitter June 25 at Tampa Bay.
"One thing about pitching, you better throw strikes for me," said Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who otherwise seemed happy to have Jackson. "That's the only thing that drives me crazy."
"The deal that we made the other day, I heard it described as marginally better," Williams said. "But no matter your business/industry/occupation, if you become marginally better, that can result in success to a greater degree.
"We got marginally better in '08 and '05, it helped us win championships: One division, one World Series."
Williams and his assistants wanted to make a bigger splash but without disrupting the team's current setup.
"We felt like we're stronger enough as we are and everything fits together in such a way," Williams said, "the only thing we were going to add would be an impact guy."
He thought he accomplished that Friday when he completed a deal with Houston for switch hitter Lance Berkman, but the 10-and-5 veteran nixed it in favor of a move to the New York Yankees.
Williams held no hard feelings over that - he said Berkman texted a buddy on the Sox to relay that it was nothing against the franchise - and promptly went after Ramirez.
When that didn't work (the Sox allegedly offered to do nothing except assume a small chunk of Ramirez's large salary), there weren't many other options.
Washington apparently refused to move Adam Dunn without a guy such as Beckham or infielder Dayan Viciedo joining Jackson in the deal.
Regardless of whether Williams felt the Nationals reneged on a trade revolving around Jackson and Dunn, he needed permission for a significant payroll jump no matter how his July dealings ended.
Hudson made the major-league minimum of $400,000, but Jackson gets approximately $1.4 million for the rest of this season and $8.35 million in 2011.
That's not just a marginally bigger payroll, but it beat the marginal risk in Williams' mind.
"There's a greater concern that we didn't have the back end of the rotation taken care of well enough right now," Williams said. "That could screw up what has been a solid bullpen and thereby cost you the division."