The White Sox went ahead and exercised their one year option on Jose Valentin for $5 million. I don’t think Jose is a bad player to have in the lineup but I do think the Sox could have gotten him a little bit cheaper. First they would have had to buyout his contract for $500,000. They then could have tried to sign him to a two year deal for about $3M per season.
I’m sure Valentin would have tested the free agent waters but I’m not sure he could have done much better even with the limited depth of shortstops in the free agent market. And if he did do better the Sox could have tried to match. But I guess there was no plan B for the Sox and they didn’t want to risk being stuck empty handed at short.
And speaking of free agents, At Home Plate has a nice round up of who’s available listed by team.