Chicago White Sox: Will Kenny Williams Dare To Blow Up His Pitching Staff?

The Chicago White Sox fielded a pretty solid pitching staff despite a disappointing 2011 season.

With salary an issue and no one to tell him otherwise, is Williams toying with the prospect of dismantling his starting rotation?

There's the slight chance that the White Sox GM could maintain a six-man rotation of familiar names this winter. Jake Peavy, Phil Humber and Chris Sale all look to have spots to go with Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Gavin Floyd.

That doesn't appear to be the case.

If you haven't started singing "Bye, Bye Buehrle" yet, it might be time to face the music. He isn't going to give Chicago a hometown discount and is going to have at least one offer that will keep him from returning.

It also is a possibility that Williams is going to shop several arms in the winter meetings.

Williams isn't ruling out trading Danks and/or Floyd next month. There's a lot of high-priced arms in the bullpen who may also be on the way to another team. Jesse Crain would look good to a contending team at $4.5 million.

I would have believed that Williams keep the back end of the bullpen (Crain, Matt Thornton and Sergio Santos) intact, filling in spots cheaply from within. Picking up Jason Frasor's $3.75 million option makes me think that Williams is creating options for some wheeling and dealing.

The real problem with the White Sox was the offense, but Williams is limited in what he can do with Alex Rios and Adam Dunn and their hard to move contracts. Carlos Quentin is his only valuable trade chip.

On the other side of the coin, Williams has all sorts of bartering material in the pitching department. Danks, Floyd, Crain and Thornton are all desirable commodities and could be moved fairly easily. It would probably leave Chicago a little light on the mound if all of these players were dealt, but maybe Williams sees that as a way to begin a rebuilding effort.

Williams is a deal maker at heart and loves to try and get the better of a trade. All his talk could well be posturing in order to maximize possible returns next month. Williams has never undertaking a full-scale rebuild in his tenure and I don't expect one to develop this winter.

We'll probably see at least one arm in addition to Buehrle leave town, but I'm drawing the line short of a total demolition of the staff by Williams. It all depends on what kind of deal Trader Kenny can strike.