The White Sox’s best move of the off-season might have come one week before re-signing free-agent first baseman Paul Konerko to a five-year, $60 million contract.
Landing slugger Jim Thome from Philadelphia, as far as Konerko was concerned, was the perfect enticement.
“It was the greatest move the White Sox could make to bring me back,” Konerko said Wednesday on a conference call from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “I don’t have many heroes, but if you’re a first baseman, Jim Thome is whom you want to be like.”
Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Sox expanded their offer this week from four to five years. They virtually matched the package the Los Angeles Angels had offered Konerko, who turned down about $5 million more from Baltimore.
“To stay competitive, we had to go to a fifth year,” Sox general manager Ken Williams said.
Manager Ozzie Guillen reiterated that Konerko would be named the Sox’s captain and wanted to hold a brief ceremony honoring his slugger with that distinction in the future.
“He’s our leader,” Guillen said. “He deserves it.”
Williams went on to praise supporters, including club Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf for approving the final offer and Sox fans who have helped raise revenue with purchases of tickets and merchandise.
The signing of Konerko, 29, makes it likely the Sox will have a payroll well above the $75 million they spent in 2005.
That’s thanks to increased income “that will take us to another level,” Williams said. “We took a major step forward in winning the World Series, but to cement ourselves in the Chicago market and the national market, we have to keep pushing. We won it, and we want to win it again.”
Konerko will make $12 million in each of the next five seasons. He also has a limited no-trade clause under which he has selected six teams to which he can veto a trade.
Because Konerko has more than seven years of major-league service time, he will earn full trade-veto rights during the 2008 season when he becomes a 10-and-5 player–at least 10 years of major-league experience, the last five with the same team.
The signing means the Sox have 15 players signed for 2006 at about $69.7 million.
But no contract is as significant at Konerko’s. He has hit 203 home runs in his seven seasons with the Sox, 40 in each of the last two seasons. He also led the postseason surge with five home runs and 15 RBIs.
Guillen envisions a lineup that features Thome batting third, followed by Konerko and Jermaine Dye.
“Adding Jim was a huge thing,” Konerko said. “One facet lacking last year was the offense, and I have to believe he’s going to shore it up.”
With the addition of Thome, Guillen plans to use Konerko as the designated hitter at least a couple of times a week, with primary DH Thome spelling him at first.
“I know Paul doesn’t want to DH, but we’ll see how he feels,” Guillen said.
Konerko said his projected role with the Angels wasn’t clearly defined with Darin Erstad already at first.
But Konerko went into free agency for the first time with the mind-set he was leaving and strongly considered the Angels for more than just the fact they train in Tempe, Ariz., near his off-season home, and that Angel Stadium is a six-hour drive from home.
“It was tough. I felt like I was dealing with two hometown teams because of the people that raised me and helped me,” said Konerko, who knew Angels manager Mike Scioscia and coach Mickey Hatcher from their minor-league days with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Konerko quickly dismissed a report of his having an arthritic hip.
“I don’t respond to it,” said Konerko, who played a career-high 158 games last season. “I just hand them a piece of paper and show them what I’ve done, and then I go show them. It’s that simple.”
In the end, Konerko’s signing brought as much relief to him as it did the Sox.
“When I left after the World Series parade (Oct. 28), I said this would be an easy thing to work out,” Konerko said. “It was far from that. This wore me down more than anything. I’ve never been so torn over things.
“Eventually I got what I wanted. It finally worked out.”
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mgonzales@tribune.com
