After securing Jon Garland with a three-year, $29 million contract Wednesday, White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams issued warnings to both Jose Contreras and the Cubs that things are changing now that the World Series trophy resides on the South Side.
Garland’s signing leaves only Contreras among White Sox starting pitchers unsigned through 2007, meaning he might be used as trade bait for someone like Baltimore’s Miguel Tejada, a situation that has reversed itself completely from 10 days ago.
“I gave both Jon and Jose the same phone call after the [Javier] Vazquez trade was done: ‘We love you, and we want you back,’ ” Williams said. “But we have some grand plans here, and we’re not going to go forward without securing the future of our starting pitching.
“If you want to be part of it, it’s wise to cut to the chase and tell us what you want, and if not, we respect that as a personal and business decision. You move on and we’ll move down the road to explore our options.
“Jon was the one who responded to that.”
Williams is rumored to have spoken with the Orioles about Tejada, whom the Cubs also are said to be pursuing, with starter Mark Prior as the possible bait.
And on the subject of the Cubs, Williams believes wrapping up his starters for several years will give the White Sox a chance at what he called “sustained success” and the possibility of overturning Chicago’s longtime baseball “culture.”
“The defeatist attitude that we always will be Chicago’s second team just doesn’t fly with me,” Williams said, “and we all accept the challenge that we must win again and probably again after that to change the culture.”
So far this off-season, Williams has had an answer for just about everything. He has added starter Vazquez, designated hitter Jim Thome, and utilityman Rob Mackowiak while sewing up Garland to go with Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia and Brandon McCarthy for another two years. That gives the White Sox six starters and allows Williams to deal from a position of strength.
The White Sox and Contreras have sent proposals back and forth for a contract extension, but don’t appear to be close. Contreras, 34, is believed to want three guaranteed years at between $11 million and $12 million per year, while the White Sox are short on both sides of that.
The Sox made a good business deal in signing Garland, whose new contract is backloaded so the payroll can be contained at about $95 million for next season. Garland will receive $7 million next year,
$10 million in 2007 and $12 million in 2008. That makes him a free agent in three years.
Garland, who turned 26 in September, established career highs in nearly every category, finishing 18-10 with a 3.50 ERA.
During the postseason, Garland made two starts, going 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA. That included a complete-game victory over the Angels in Game 3 of the ALCS. He also started Game 3 of the World Series, allowing four runs in seven innings.
It was a breakthrough season for Garland, the 1997 first-round draft pick of the Cubs. He is 64-61 with a 4.42 ERA for his career, but over the last four years is fifth in the AL in innings pitched and games started.
