May 04--John Danks had an idea the White Sox might be moving toward a change after he allowed six runs over five innings against the Orioles last week.
The veteran left-hander thought a move to the bullpen might be in the works, but he said he ultimately understood the Sox's decision to cut ties with him after 10 seasons in the organization.
The Sox made the announcement Tuesday, and Danks cleared out his locker, said goodbye to his teammates and drove back to his home in Nashville, Tenn., the same day.
"The way my April went and the way the team is playing, I can't fault anybody with the decision they made," Danks said. "It's a win-now league, and I wasn't helping the team win.
"The team is hot, the team is playing well. That's obvious, and you can't go out there with four-fifths of a rotation. I totally understand that."
Sox general manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday they didn't think a move to the bullpen would benefit their well-established relief corps or Danks, who had started in all 247 of his career appearances.
Danks had gained confidence in spring training and said he never would have envisioned making only four starts this season, his final of a five-year, $65 million contract with the team.
But he went 0-4 with a 7.25 ERA, a result, he said, of not being able to consistently command his pitches, a necessity for a pitcher with diminished fastball velocity after his 2012 shoulder surgery.
"My stuff is not of the kind where I can get behind in the count," Danks said. "I wasn't able to throw strike one before the count got to 2-0. I was making good pitches behind in the count, but at that point I was in trouble.
"I don't think it was a health thing. I don't think necessarily it was a mechanical thing outside of just trying to get it ironed out. But I just had to be able to throw more strikes consistently and I wasn't able to do that."
Danks said he plans to stay in shape so he can join another team if there's interest. He declined to work in the Sox minor-league system.
"If the phone rings, I'll be certainly interested," Danks said. "If it doesn't for whatever reason, it has been a hell of a run. I can say I got to play nine seasons in the big leagues, especially with one team in a bad-ass city like Chicago. I don't have any regrets. I worked as hard as I know how to and did my very best every time out, and that's really all I could promise."
Danks leaves the only major-league team he has ever played for, a place where he said he "grew up" after making his debut in 2007 and pitched in parts of four seasons after the surgery.
He said the hardest part of leaving now is the chemistry that has developed within a team that has started the year with an American League-best 19-8 record.
"Those guys are a blast to be around," Dank said. "It's always more fun to win, just the energy that gets brought in every day and the camaraderie and the trust in each other. ... It's been a great month aside from four starts. I wish those guys nothing but the best. I'm a Sox fan, for sure."
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