1963
He had a spectacular season in 1963, making the White Sox star left-handed Gary Peters was named American League Rookie of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Peters went 19-8 with a 2.33 ERA (AL best among starting pitchers) and struck out 189 in 243 innings pitched. At one point he won eleven games in a row, an AL rookie record. He also hit .259, with three home runs and 12 RBIs. Peters would win twenty games in 1964, lead the league in ERA in 1966 and make the All-Star team twice.
Peters received 10 of 20 first-place votes, beating out his teammate and power-hitting third baseman Pete Ward. Ward, who would be named American League Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News, hit .295 with 22 home runs, 84 RBIs and had 177 hits in 1963. Ward received six first-place votes among baseball writers, while the Twins’ Jimmy Hall received the final four votes.
1967
The White Sox regained the shortstop Luis Aparicio of the Orioles, along with outfielder Russ Snyder and first baseman/outfielder Johannes Matiasas part of a six-player deal. Matias and Snyder would both be terrible during brief stints in Chicago, but Aparicio would have his best offensive seasons in the coming years: Aparicio hit .280 in 1969 and .313 in 1970 in addition to his usually excellent defense, but that couldn’t really help a team that was becoming one of the worst in baseball.
And unfortunately for the White Sox, besides pitchers Bruce Howard And Roger Nelsonthe club changed Don Buford to Baltimore. The speedster would have his best seasons with the Orioles, with 19.2 WAR and three Top 30 MVP finishes in the four seasons from 1968 to 1971, before quickly bowing out and retiring from baseball in 1972.
1972
In a brilliant trade, White Sox GM Roland Hemond pitcher sent Tom Bradley to San Francisco for outfielder Ken Henderson and pitcher Steve Stone. Henderson was a Gold Glove-winning, switch-hitting and power-hitting center fielder, while Stone added depth to the White Sox’ pitching staff. Meanwhile, Bradley never regained the form he showed with the Sox in 1971 and 1972, when he won 15 games each year with an ERA under 3.00, and was out of baseball in 1975. Henderson’s best year with the White Sox came in 1974, when he played in every game and hit .292 with 20 home runs and 95 RBIs. Stone actually did his best Sox work during his second go-round, when he won fifteen games in 1977.
1977
Despite being close to signing a multi-year deal that would have brought him back to the South Side, the site of his best season as the core of the 1977 South Side Hit Men, Oscar Gamble picked up a mega deal from San Diego at the last hour, joining the Padres on a six-year, $2.85 million pact.
Whatever Gamble gained in additional years or dollars, he lost in productivity, as San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium absorbed nearly all his power; in 62 games there, the slugger launched just two home runs and was traded during the season (what a catastrophic admission of failure by the Padres) to the Texas Rangers. The deal still leaves a sour taste on the tongues of Padres fans.
Gamble came full circle, back to Chicago (he started his career at the Cubs and was a star with the White Sox) in 1985 to end his career. Ironically, even though it was seven years later and Gamble turned 35, the slugger matched his San Diego home run output of two home runs in 1985 – in just 36 Comiskey Park games.
2010
The White Sox signed two unimportant free agent weapons that turned out to be… unimportant.
Seven-year veteran reliever Brian Bruney had had a solid run with the Mets before a poor 2010 with the Nationals. In Chicago, he pitched a 6.86 ERA over 23 games before being released on August 15. (And re-signed for 2012 offseason!) Jeff Gray had found little success in his three MLB seasons, serving admirably as an AAAA player (six games between Charlotte and the South Side, 2.70 ERA) until he was claimed by the Mariners in May when the White Sox tried to sneak him through waivers. Gray was also returned to the South Side in 2013.
In short, this day’s signings produced 0.0 WAR for the 2011 White Sox.
2022
At a press conference in Houston, the… Astros announced the signing of the longtime White Sox first baseman on November 28 José Abreu to a three-year contract. The move proved unpopular but smart, as Abreu hit rock bottom in Houston and was released in the middle of his multi-year deal.
In nine years with the Sox, Abreu hit 248 home runs with 863 RBIs. He was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2014, won the MVP in 2020, earned three Silver Sluggers and was a three-time All-Star. But his age and the fact that the Sox had Andreas Vaughn waiting in the wings (a former first-round draft pick who also played first base) made José expendable in the minds of the organization.
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