Trout to Kiermaier: The richest signing of all 30 MLB teams
By Bill Felber
27. Chicago White Sox
So we finally get to the White Sox, who started all this by signing Benintendi to that five-year, $75 million deal. What were the Sox spending their money on prior to this week?
Yasmani Grandal set the previous franchise record when he signed a four-year, $73 million contract prior to the 2023 season.
The $70 million level has been something of a capstone figure on the South Side. Before Grandal, that’s what Yoan Moncada signed for in 2020. In 2015, they signed Jose Abreu for $68 million over six years, and a fraction more than the $65 million paid to John Danks over five seasons beginning in 2012.
Back in 2009, Alex Rios got $64 million over six seasons. And from 2006 through 2009, Jim Thome played for Chicago under terms of an $80 million deal Thome had signed while he was playing for the Phillies.
In one sense, Paul Konerko is the champion earner on Chicago’s South Side. He pulled down more than $129 million over the course of his 16-season career with the Sox. But Konerko did that under a succession of separate deals, none of which exceeded the five year, $60 million deal he signed prior to the 2006 season.