The White Sox signed Jeff Keppinger to a three-year deal for reasonable money. Interestingly, Joe Maddon put out some dis-information after the signing:
“Kep is the proverbial consummate professional,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said before departing baseball’s winter meetings at the Opryland Hotel. “He just knows how to hit. He’s never in trouble at the plate. I don’t care who is pitching. He is a very confident offensive player.
“The thing about Kep, people don’t know how good he is on defense.”
His 2012 season was one of the few years Keppinger was above average on defense. There’s really nothing else in his history that would indicate he’s good with the glove. It looks like he had an outlier season. Maybe by Maddon saying that, the White Sox will play him in the field more than they should. 🙂
Keppinger has actually been pretty good defensively at 3B, and that was where the Rays played him a lot more. Previously, despite his poor play there, most teams played him at 2B and SS, where he is horrible defensively by the defensive metrics out there available.