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.