SAN DIEGO — The Chicago White Sox are making the biggest moves at the winter meetings, trying to regain relevance in the AL Central after losing 188 games over two seasons.
Hours after reaching a $46 million, four-year deal with closer David Robertson, Chicago acquired starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija from the Oakland Athletics as part of a six-player trade.
“In our mind we’re not finished yet,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday. “We still know we have some other areas we need to improve and we’re hopeful that in the coming days, and if not the coming days, then the coming weeks, we’ll be able to fill a couple more voids in our roster.”
While Jon Lester’s talks on the free-agent market still seemed to be creating a logjam for other starting pitchers, the Chicago teams were busy in the trade mart.
In the day’s other significant swap, the Arizona Diamondbacks sent All-Star catcher Miguel Montero, who is owed $40 million over the next three seasons, to the Chicago Cubs for a pair of prospects.
Coming off consecutive playoff appearances that followed a 20-year drought, the Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to a $39 million, three-year deal to keep left-hander Francisco Liriano. And Atlanta agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent infielder Alberto Callaspo.
The deals for Robertson, Liriano and Callaspo were disclosed by people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been announced.
Lester has been sought by Boston, the Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
“If it happens tomorrow, it happens tomorrow. If happens next week, it happens next week. If it happens in January, it happens in January,” Boston general manager Ben Cherington said. “We’re not working in sequential order. We are aware of all the possibilities. We have to be aware of the bigger stuff because of the financial implications, but there’s all sorts of other stuff we are working on.”
The White Sox boosted their rotation by acquiring Samardzija, who played football for Notre Dame and pitched for the Cubs.