Should Dye Stay Or Should Dye Go Now?

I have no idea what to think about the White Sox right now. Going into the season it was known that if the team was out of it-though nobody thought they'd be this out of it-Mark Buehrle and Jermaine Dye were the two players likely to be traded.

Tadahito Iguchi's name came up too as a free agent, but there was never any real talk about an Iguchi trade. (Well, okay, I talked.) So now we sit here on July 31st and Mark Buehrle is signed for another five years, Tadahito Iguchi is hitting home runs against the Cubs for the Phillies, and now maybe Jermaine Dye is about to sign a contract extension.

What the hell is going on?

Jermaine Dye remains a member of the White Sox, and the possibility exists that he could stay in Chicago despite strong interest from Boston.

The White Sox, according to an industry source, have made overtures about giving Dye an extension that wouldn't mortgage their long-term future. Dye can become a free agent after this season and seek a long-term extension elsewhere, even though he indicated last week that he wouldn't settle for a one-year contract.

From what I'm hearing, the Sox are offering a two-year deal, but Dye would like it to be longer. While I wouldn't be that upset if the Sox kept Dye, I still don't think it's the right move to make. As I've said before, Dye is the only valuable trade chip the Sox can afford to lose right now. It's a lot easier to replace corner outfielders than it is starters like Jon Garland and Javier Vazquez.

The White Sox were close to sending Jermaine to Boston yesterday for Wily Mo Pena and a couple of prospects, but the Red Sox aren't sure they want to hand over the prospects that Kenny Williams wants. The latest talk I hear is Pena and one prospect for Dye.

I think Kenny's just going to sit around and wait on this as long as possible in hopes that the Red Sox will relent and accept the trade. Williams is probably also fielding phone calls from the Angels who lost out on Mark Teixeira yesterday and might be a little more willing to part with young talent for Dye's proven bat. Even if it does leave a logjam in the outfield.

At this point I'd say it's 60/40 that Dye will be traded within the next two hours.