RUMBLINGS OF A SAMARDZIJA DEAL

I'm not sure what to make of it, but on Friday night when there were rumblings of a big trade involving Oakland, Jeff Samardzija's name was mentioned, as were the White Sox as a possible landing place. That wasn't the big deal Oakland pulled off, as it sent Josh Donaldson to Toronto in a deal I didn't understand, but that doesn't mean Oakland is done yet.

Susan Slusser, who covers the Athletics and was the first person to start tweeting about a big trade coming, sent out these tweets as well.

Again, source tells me that #Athletics nearing major deal that involves Samardzija for several players, team targeting hitters.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) November 29, 2014

I'm told 10 teams have expressed interest in Samardzija; #RedSox and #WhiteSox among them. But he is not in deal as @Ken_Rosenthal says.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) November 29, 2014

Now, that doesn't mean anything, as it's not a shock that the Sox would at least check in on the availability of Samardzija. But then late Friday night, just before I curled up into bed, this tweet made its way into my timeline.

WHITE SOX SIGN ADAM LAROCHE

The White Sox offseason continues to take shape as it was reported Friday night that the Sox had signed free agent Adam LaRoche. The White Sox are yet to officially announce the deal, but it was reported by Bob Nightingale that LaRoche received a two-year deal worth $25 million.

And that's fine.

Two years isn't going to hamstring the Sox, even if LaRoche is now the second-highest paid member of the team, sliding in behind John Danks.

As for what the signing means to the Sox next season, my initial reaction was a bit trepidatious. Maybe I'm just put off by the idea of signing a left-handed slugging first baseman from the Nationals considering what happened with Adam Dunn, but that's stupid. LaRoche isn't Adam Dunn. At least I hope he isn't.

What we know about LaRoche is that he's coming off a pretty good season with the Nationals. He hit .259/.362/.455 in 140 games with 26 home runs and 92 RBI. He was worth 2.2 WAR. That's not bad at all. What isn't great is that LaRoche just turned 35 a few weeks ago, so he's not exactly coming to Chicago in the middle of his prime.