Sox agree to 3-year deal with Konerko

Soaking up some sun on a beach in Mexico last Thursday, Paul Konerko initially felt burned when informed by the Daily Herald that the White Sox signed free-agent first baseman Adam Dunn to a four-year, $56 million contract.

“My first thought was, ‘OK, that was a fun 12 years. That's it. It was an either him or me situation,'” Konerko said Wednesday.

Upon further reflection, Konerko recalled the conversation he had with Sox general manager Kenny Williams at the end of the 2010 season.

“I remembered Kenny telling me, ‘Listen, if we go after this next year, we want to win it. I don't want you or Adam; I want both of you,'” Konerko said. “That was in my mind as well where I was able to say, ‘OK, maybe they will make a push to get both of us.'”

The final push came Wednesday morning, when Konerko and the White Sox agreed to a three-year, $37.5 million contract.

Under terms of the new deal, the Sox' longtime captain is deferring money like Dunn and catcher A.J. Pierzynski did last week.

Konerko is set to make $12 million during each of the next two seasons, $6.5 million in 2013 and $1 million for each of the next seven years.

“All hail the king!” second baseman Gordon Beckham told the Daily Herald in an e-mail Wednesday. “I could not be personally happier that we got Paul back. I'm selfishly happy about it because of what Paul has meant to me personally. He helped get me out of the biggest rut I have ever been in.

“He is an incredible baseball player, but more importantly he is a great person. He means so much to so many people and I'm happy the White Sox got it done because he doesn't need to be in anything other than that black and white.”

Konerko's return was definitely in a gray area as recently as Tuesday night, but the 34-year-old first baseman said he is back where he belongs.

“Definitely, to come back was always 1A in my mind of what I wanted to happen,” Konerko said.

Williams was feeling a bit skittish Tuesday night at the winter meetings because he didn't want to be left holding the bag if Konerko decided to sign elsewhere.

The Sox' aggressive GM was obviously relieved when he landed his No. 1 target.

“Again, when I talk about Paul Konerko, I first have to talk about the first-class person that he is,” Williams told reporters at the winter meetings. “And believe me, that factors into our equation, whenever we are trying to certainly make a commitment of this nature. This is certainly about the talent, but just as importantly, I think a message to young people out there, young players out there as well, that if you conduct yourself in a certain manner, those things are also factored in.

“You know, we are just thrilled to have not only the player, but the person, and hopefully we can one day have him retire as a White Sox.”

With a .312 batting average, 39 home runs and 111 RBI, good for a fifth-place finish in American League MVP voting, Konerko is coming off the best season of his stellar career.

Still, there are plenty of skeptics wondering if Konerko can produce for three more years.

“Sometimes it's not about how good you feel or what you've done, it's about what the market is,” Konerko said. “Everybody is kind of at the mercy of what that is. I knew that going in. I wasn't like, ‘I had a good year last year and this is going to yield me this because of it.' I know it's a very different animal when you start talking about the market.

“Not only that, as a first baseman, there aren't many teams. You start looking around and most of the teams are taken up already (at first base). So you have to look at who is out there, who wants you, and that is pretty much the whole month of November.

“When you see a couple of deals roll down, and because of the year last year, I couldn't see myself stopping two years from now. I could see myself stopping three years from now, but you never know. I definitely knew that three was in the mix.”

The addition of Konerko means the White Sox' payroll could easily top $120 million next season.

With a nod to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who delivered the unexpected extra revenue, Williams said that is the price the White Sox must pay.

“Jerry Reinsdorf is a very competitive man and wants to win a championship and it's our job to put together as good of a club as we can to accomplish those goals,” Williams said. “So let's just hope it comes together in that fashion.

But our fans, hey, listen, we have great, great fans, but the fact of the matter is you have to prove to White Sox fans that you are going to be worthy of discretionary spending and I don't have a problem with it and kind of take pride in the fact that we have earned their support over the years.”