White Sox, Vizquel Agree To New Contract
(WSCR) - With the World Series officially over, baseball fans, players, coaches and executives now turn to the free-agent season. Today the White Sox have started that season by bringing back a player from last year.
The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms on a one-year, $1.75-million contract with 11-time Gold Glove infielder Omar Vizquel.
Vizquel, 43, hit .276 (95-344) with 11 doubles, two home runs and 30 RBI in 108 games with the White Sox in 2010. He made 62 starts at third base, 19 at second, eight at shortstop and one as the designated hitter.
A native of Caracas, Venezuela, the switch-hitting infielder owns a lifetime .273 (2,799-10,266) average with 80 home runs, 936 RBI and 1,414 runs scored in 2,850 games with Seattle (1989-1993), Cleveland (1994-2004), San Francisco (2005-08), Texas (2009) and the White Sox (2010).
Vizquel, an 11-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner (1993-2001, 2005-06), has posted a .985 (183 E/11,905 TC) career fielding percentage, the highest ever among shortstops with at least 1,000 games played.
He is tied for 15th all-time in games played, ranks 19th in at-bats, 47th in hits and 68th in stolen bases (400). Vizquel's 2,678 hits as a shortstop are the second-highest total all-time, trailing only Derek Jeter (2,904), and his 2,850 games played are the most by a foreign-born player in baseball history.
Vizquel, a three-time American League All-Star (1998-99, 2002), originally signed with the White Sox as a free agent on November 23, 2009.
A Chicago White Sox press release contributed to this report.
