Mr. Pierre Goes to Chicago

To the White Sox, that is.

It was really only a matter of time before a deal would be consummated, as it had been known since last off-season that Juan Pierre wanted out of L.A. so he could play everyday elsewhere. This morning, they finally unloaded him to the White Sox in exchange for two infamous players-to-be-named later, most likely pitchers, and cash.

Whom those players are remains to be seen but we do know this: the Dodgers are off the hook for just a little under half of what's left of his contract. He has two years, $18.5MM left. That means Dodgers will pay roughly $10.5MM of that while the White Sox will be responsible for $3MM in 2010 and $5MM in 2011.

Could this $8MM savings be used to lure a starting pitcher on the free agent market? Only time will tell.

It would be nice to know who the Dodgers will get back in return but I think they did well on this deal just on the simple fact they were able to unload Pierre and managed to get another team to send them cash to help pay for almost half of what's left of his contract. They also did well just on the fact they're also getting two players out of it. And if they ever pan, out, that's just extra gravy on the potatoes. But until we know whom they get in return, and how well Pierre performs in Chicago, it's too early to say who the winner and loser of this deal really is.

On the Dodgers side, the departure of Pierre means that Xavier Paul will become the fourth outfielder. But for the White Sox, this gives Pierre a chance for more playing time again. They have Alex Rios in right and Carlos Quentin in left. They signed Andruw Jones to a contact several weeks ago, but his role is probably undetermined, so you would have to assume Pierre would become the centerfielder in Chicago.

As for Pierre and the Dodgers. I was never a big fan of signing Pierre in the first place because it seemed like it was a desperation move on Ned Colletti's part at the time of the signing. They had missed out on several other key free agent outfielders at the time, most notably Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez, and his signing also meant one of the other outfielders, Andre Ethier or Matt Kemp, would be benched or thrown into a platoon role because Luis Gonzalez was was just signed to play left field. And looking ahead to the following season, they knew guys like Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones, whom they eventually signed anyway, would be available. They could have just re-signed Kenny Lofton to another one-year deal as stop-gap until they signed Jones and Gonzalez came off the books. Jones never panned out and they eventually traded for Manny Ramirez during the 2008 season, leaving the Dodgers with an expensive bench player in Pierre. But even before the Jones deal, you had to think, and I did, that he would have been a better option than signing Pierre to that ridiculous five-year, $44MM contract.

You can't really fault Pierre though. He never complained when his role was diminished; he busted his tail off whenever he did play. But as Jon Weisman points out here, Pierre's 2009 season, as good as it was for a fourth outfielder, was a fluke. The numbers he put up as a fourth outfielder were too good to be true. They were far better than anything he'd put up in the last four seasons, three of which he was a regular, and it still didn't come close to the "off" season Manny had in 2009. In other words, Pierre has never had a season as good as Manny's "off" year last season. And, to finish reiterating Weisman's point, in his words, "No amount of hustle or intangibles can make up the difference in quality between Pierre and Ramirez." I couldn't have said it any better myself.

So, the logjam in the outfield that was created when the Dodgers irresponsibly signed Pierre before the 2007 season is finally a distant memory. And any way you want to slice it, the deal is a good one for the Dodgers.