Bring Back Dye? No Way!

     For those that sit and evaluate the White Sox offseason moves with their hearts instead of their heads…SNAP OUT OF IT!!!  First there were the cries of “Bring back Thome”, and now it’s the same song with Jermaine Dye.  You folks really need to get over it.  It’s time to move on.  It’s about moving forward, not living in the past.  Yes, you have a certain emotional attachment to those that delivered to you the 2005 World Series championship.  I get it.  But baseball is a business, not a charity, and you can’t get emotional when making tough decisions like who to keep and who to send packing.  Jermaine Dye was awesome for the Sox, no question.  But to bring him back right now would be a mistake.

     I’m sure that I hold the unpopular opinion here, especially when so many of you are upset with our current DH situation, but I firmly believe that the addition of Dye would be no better than what Ozzie Guillen has in place right now.  I can appreciate his willingness to switch to first base.  I can appreciate that he claims that he can still contribute.  Most aging ballplayers say that.  “It has only been (4½) years since I was the World Series MVP. I’m a winner. Hopefully some teams out there can see that,” said Dye to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal.  But the bottom line is that, while he may believe what he says to be true, the reality of the situation is that it’s not.

     For starters, let’s talk about his defense.  His range in the outfield certainly isn’t what it used to be.  He doesn’t get as good a jump on the ball anymore and his legs are not in a place where he can easily catch up to a ball he may have misjudged.  I don’t know about you, but the site of a 14 year veteran (I’d say his age, but actually I’m older than he is) awkwardly scambling to the corner on a misplayed fly ball and throwing a 6 hopper to second as the batter slides into third with a triple, does not appeal to me.  Yeah, that’s right.  That was a knock on the arm strength too.

     And if that’s the way he looks at his natural position, imagine the difficulty he’d have handling line drives, short-hoppers to first, or even a bunt.  It’d be like that scene in the Michael Keaton movie “Gung Ho” where Norm from Cheers (George Wendt) is playing the hot corner in a softball game and all the Japanese batter bunted at him because he just couldn’t handle the play.  Yes, completely odd reference I know, but those that have seen it know exactly what I’m talking about.

     The hitting, I’m afraid, could be just as ugly.  On the surface, you’re looking at his stats from last year and saying, “What’s wrong with 27 home runs?  I’ll take that for the middle of my lineup.”  And while I’d take that too from my DH, that’s not what you’re likely to get.  Dye spent the first half of last year mashing the ball.  Just mashing it.  A .302 average with 20 HR and 55 RBI was really more than anybody could have expected.   But then the All Star Break came and went and so did Dye.  Over the second half of the season, he hit just 7 HR with 26 RBI and a woeful .179 average.  In fact, he hit under .200 for both August and September.  The breakdown was in full force.  He became a liabilty, not just with his glove, but at the plate too.

     Now I’m sure some people will say that it’s just half a season, but if you look at his splits from the year before, you’ll see that the trend started back then.  After hitting .302 with 21 HR and 55 RBI in the first half of 2008 (yup, near identical to last year’s first half), Dye only hit 13 HR in the second half and posted a .276 average, the lowest it’s been in the second half since 2004.  Rock solid before the break, not so much after.  Playing a full season just isn’t in the cards for him anymore.

     And then there’s the contract demands.  Neither Dye nor his agent have come out and specifically said what they wanted, but word on the street has Dye turning down a 1 year $3.3M contract offer from the Cubs (Dye said it was only $3M, but come on now).  Sure, that was probably for a platoon/pinch hitting situation, but what does he expect to receive?  Andruw Jones signed a one year deal for half a million bucks with the potential to add another million in incentives.  Mark Kotsay was re-signed for $1.5M, and that was after impressing the club last year when he came over from Boston.  Combined, they still don’t make what Dye is asking for, and I don’t blame the team for trying to be fiscally prudent.   

     Believe me, this doesn’t make me happy to report, but we have to keep the team’s best interests in mind.  I know that Jones’ batting average has been unbelievably atrocious since that final year in Atlanta, and I know that Kotsay has spent more time on the DL than he has in the field, but I still believe the tandem is a better option than bringing back Dye.  Forget about the fact that the $2 million you’re guaranteeing for them would be pissed away if you brought him back.  For the fans, I’m sure the money is an afterthought…until that wasted money needs to be made up with hiked up ticket prices and $12 beers at the stadium.  It’s about the level of production and the position flexibility you have.

     With Dye in there, you can’t rest your outfielders like you can with Jones and Kotsay.  Both of those guys are huge defensive upgrades from him and aren’t that far off in fielding talent as the guys we have starting.  Resting Paul Konerko at first is fine, but I’d rather see Kotsay over there.  Even Jones played a little first for Texas last year.  You can afford Konerko a few games off and not feel like you’ve conceded every ground ball that’s hit to the right side of the infield.  Gordon Bekham’s got decent range, but it ain’t that good.  Teams are putting a much stronger emphasis on defense this year and rightfully so.  Maybe HRs increased from 2008 to 2009, but we’re still witnessing a change in the game here in the post-steroids era.  Just being able to go up there and mash (something Dye really isn’t even doing anymore) isn’t enough.  You need to be able to play the field as well.  Sure, the DH job normally doesn’t require that, but with the changing game, managers, like Guillen, are more inclined to use the slot as a way to rest starters while still keeping a respectable bat in the lineup.

     So it is with a heavy heart that I say to you, goodbye Jermaine Dye.  We’ll never forget you.  We’ll never forget what you did for us.  We’ll never forget how you helped bring a title to a city that had been starved for decades.  But sadly, it’s no longer about what you did for us then, it’s what you can do for us today and tomorrow.

Tags: Andruw Jones, Chicago White Sox, Gordon Beckham, Jermaine Dye, Mark Kotsay, Ozzie Guillen, Paul Konerko, White Sox