Today in White Sox History: April 1

Matt Thornton is rewarded for a great 2006 — and become a high-leverage cornerstone on the South Side

1901

Following teammate Clark Griffith, who signed with the White Sox to become player-manager, Chicago Colts (Cubs) pitcher Nixey Callahan jumped leagues to the White Sox. Callahan, like many of his cohorts who fled the National League for the American, saw his salary bump up, in his case to $3,300 ($117,000 today).

Callahan was amazing in his first year with the White Sox, pitching in 27 games to a 4.7 WAR — and also hit well enough to add another 1.3 WAR. That 6.0 WAR total was good for seventh overall in the AL in 1901 and second on the White Sox, behind Griffith.

Callahan would pitch just two more seasons after that, and finish his career out as a left fielder, compiling 13.5 WAR overall with the White Sox. He also player-managed and managed the White Sox, on two separate occasions — eight years apart.

1975

It was an indication of how bad off the White Sox were financially: Ed Herrmann, one of the top catchers in baseball and an All-Star, is traded to the Yankees for four minor league players. The reason? According to Herrmann, it was because he wanted a $2,000 raise! In six full years with the team Herrmann averaged 11 home runs, and there were few (if any) better at blocking home plate — thus earning him the nickname of “Fort” Herrmann.

2007

Matt Thornton, perhaps the consummate “Coop’ll fix ’em” pitcher, was rewarded with a three-year, $3.25 million contract extension. The deal, peanuts by today’s standards and even at the time, essentially bought out Thornton’s arbitration years and provided guaranteed salary in case he faced a worst-case, career-ending scenario.

The deal acknowledged Thornton’s extraordinary turnaround from a pitcher Seattle had wanted to dump to a 1.7 WAR relief arm (2006), with promise of many high-leverage outings to come. The tall lefty didn’t quite pay massive dividends in 2007 (0.7 WAR) but in 2008-09 blossomed into one of the few great short relievers in the game. All told, over the three years of the deal Thornton provided 5.9 WAR to the White Sox, which works out to a pittance of about $550,000 per WAR — an extraordinary bargain for the South Siders.

Thornton would rack up 10.8 WAR in his White Sox career (3.28 ERA/3.08 FIP/1.196 WHIP), tying him for third (with Roberto Hernández) among pure relievers in White Sox history.

2009

Just 10 days after being dealt to San Francisco for future considerations, shortstop Sergio Santos came back to the White Sox for those same future considerations.

What’s the story behind two teams volleying a player back and forth? The speculation is that the White Sox had a plan for Santos — converting him to a pitcher. The club dealt him to the Giants to give him one last shot as a position player, and when that didn’t work out, the agreement was to return him back to the White Sox.

We know how the story ends, with Santos doing his first pitching ever in the White Sox system in 2009 — moving from Low-A Kannapolis to Triple-A Charlotte by season’s end. This happened by stroke of luck, or the eye test, because his numbers (8.16 ERA, 1.988 WHIP across four levels) did not merit matriculation.

However, Santos was perfecting a killer slider, and when he threw to a 3.48 ERA and 1.549 WHIP during spring training in 2010, he made the cut to break north with the big club. In two full seasons in the White Sox bullpen, Santos turned in a 3.29 ERA, 2.97 WHIP, 1.996 WHIP and 31 saves.

2011

The White Sox start the season with a torrent of runs in blistering Cleveland, 15-10. It was the second-highest Opening Day scoring output in franchise history. The Sox led, 14-0, after the first five innings.

Carlos Quentin drove in five runs, newcomer Adam Dunn knocked in four, and Jim Margalus had the South Side Sox recap.

2022

In an sort of salary dump self-inflicted by GM Rick Hahn’s decision to pick up failed reliever Craig Kimbrel’s hefty, $16 million option, the White Sox picked up outfielder AJ Pollock (no bargain himself, at $13 million) from the Dodgers. It was the main part of a series of moves made on the day, summarized by Chrystal O’Keefe for South Side Sox.

Kimbrel stabilized the downward slide of his career to a degree in Los Angeles, pitching to a 3.75 ERA and 22 saves (0.2 WAR). Meanwhile Pollock remained surprisingly healthy in Chicago, but in 138 games could produce just a .681 OPS/92 OPS+ and 0.4 WAR.

Pollock hated playing for the White Sox so much, and wanted so desperately to return to the West Coast where he’d played his entire career, he was willing to pay a million dollars to escape (he declined $13 million from the White Sox for 2023 and took a $5 million buyout from the White Sox, then signed in Seattle for $7 million).

The date of the 2022 trade ironically had come exactly six years after Pollock broke his elbow sliding into home at the end of spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Also on this day, future White Sox Opening Day starter Garrett Crochet appeared headed for Tommy John surgery, as Brett Ballantini wrote for SSS.