Blowing Smoke

The White Sox were all blah-blah-blah about filling their hole at second base from internal candidates, with Romy Gonzalez topping the list followed by Leury Garcia and Lenyn Sosa. Never mind. Why? Because the Sox have reportedly signed Elvis Andrus to a one-year deal. On one level, I’m fine with it. Lord knows, Andrus plays with more energy and enthusiasm than Cesar Hernandez did. If he’s drinking from the Fountain of Youth (Andrus turns thirty-five in August) and puts up the same kind of numbers he did last year (.271 BA, nine homeruns and 28 RBIs for the Sox in forty-three games), great. Only… Andrus has played 1914 games in the field during his career, each one of them at shortstop. He may not be an old dog, but he will be learning a new position. My sense is he should be able do that without much problem. The thing that really bothers me is why the front office insists on blowing smoke to hide intent. We don’t see ourselves signing free agents this offseason, said GM Rick Hahn last November or thereabouts. Then Hahn signs Andrew Benintendi and Mike Clevinger. We’ll give Ozzie Guillen a real interview for manager. Then Hahn signs Pedro Grifol. We like what we have at second base. Then Hahn signs Andrus. Hahn must have “A Few Good Men” in heavy rotation. Because he obviously thinks Sox fans can’t handle the truth.