Each Friday over most of the offseason I am going to pick out one free agent currently on the market, and tell you everything you need to know about that player and his likelihood of coming to the White Sox this offseason.  I'll give a quick rundown of previous salaries, expected salary, how he would fit with the Sox, and the possibility the Sox actually pull the trigger and sign that particular player.

The innagural player for Free Agent Friday is Chone Figgins.

Figgins is a third basemen who has spent his entire major league career with the Anaheim Angels.  He is a 1-time All Star (2009) and has finished as high as 17th in AL MVP voting (2005).  Figgins is a 31 year old, 5'9", 155 lbs, switch hitter from Leary, GA.  He's a career .291 hitter with an on base percentage of .363.  He has stolen 280 bases in his career while being thrown out only 96 times.

Figgins previously made $5,775,000 in 2009, while making $4,750,000, $3,500,000, and $2,250,000 in the previous 3 years of his career.  I would estimate Figgins at around 7 or 8 million per year next year, and he'll probably be looking for a 4 or 5 year contract (maybe longer).

I think Figgins would be a nice fit for the Sox.  It would take some position movement if we were to go after Chone, but I think it would be worth it.  Figgins has not played outfield in his career, but if I were to guess he probably wouldn't have too much trouble doing it.  Beckham is a natural shortstop and Alexei has played center before, so you could make those two move too.  However, I'm not sure he's actually worth the money that he's going to command.  If the Sox were in dire need of a new lead-off man (which couldn't hurt), I could probably justify it, but with Podsednik still on the roster, Danks making his way up, and Chris Getz showing that he can possibly fill that role, I'm not sure it's worth 7 million or so to go get a Chone Figgins.

That being said, I really don't think this one is going to happen.  The Sox would love to have Chone Figgins on the ball club, whether he plays 3rd, OF, or even DH's, but I don't think a guy like this is worth 6/7 million to the Sox front office.  If his OBP was up around over .400 consistently I think they take a shot at that price, but with Rios and Peavy officially on the payroll now, the Sox just don't have 30+ million for 4 years to spend on a 31 year old lead-off man.  Ozzie says he wants him, but Ozzie also says he doesn't see it happening.  No real word from Kenny on Figgins, but that's not really a good tell either way.  Oh yeah, and he's coming off an atrocious postseason this year.  Might get a break on salary because of it, but don't bank on that (no pun intended).

Chance Chone Figgins is on the White Sox in 2010 - 10%

Photo courtesy of thehalosblog.files.wordpress.com.

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