Bring back Jenks and JD

I don't think I need to tell you that Jermaine Dye and Bobby Jenks are two of the main culprits in this disaster of a second half for the White Sox. Dye was fantastic in the first half, OPS'ing .942. Since then, the wheels have totally fallen off. He's hitting .168 with just five homers in the second half and has seen his OPS plummet to .778. Jenks, of course, hasn't been much better. He's blown four saves in the second half, and has the entire fanbase on pins and needles every time he enters the game. 

It's not a surprise that today we're hearing rumblings that this could be it for Jenks and JD in a White Sox uniform. Jenks popped his calf yesterday ("I can't even walk," he said) and will be shut down for the rest of the season. Sun-Times Sox beat reporter Joe Cowley has made it his personal mission in recent weeks to get Dye off the 2010 Sox. We get another article today indicating as much.

I get it. Jenks and JD have been around for a while and have been downright awful the last few months of this season. One is old, one is fat. Chicago likes youth, and speed, and overachievers (I hate overachievers). Still, I'm here to argue that both Bobby Jenks and Jermaine Dye should be brought back for 2010.

Jenks is under the team's control. He'll go to arbitration again this year, and will probably get around a $1.5 million raise from the $5.7 million he made last season. The Sox and Dye have a $12 million mutual option for next season that surely won't be picked up, and a $1 buyout.

The Sox should buyout JD and resign him to play DH. Quentin in right, Pods in left, Rios in center. You still need a DH, though. There isn't much out there on the free agent market, and it'd be stupid to hurt Tyler Flowers' growth as a catcher to have him in the majors a year early to DH. Dye has said all along he wants to finish his career in Chicago, and with his second half struggles that should be able to happen without much trouble. A one or two year contract for around $5 million a season should do it. If that's the price, I think the Sox would be stupid not to bring him back.

As for Jenks, trading him now would be trading him at his lowest value. That's not how you want to do things. Besides, he really hasn't been horrible, and finding good bullpen help - as both Chicago teams learned this year - is so hard. A one-year, $7 million deal for an average to above-average closer isn't all that bad of a deal.