White Sox announce John Danks contract extension

whitesox.com press release:

The Chicago White Sox and left-handed pitcher John Danks have agreed to terms on a five-year, $65-million contract.  Under terms of the agreement, Danks will receive $8 million in 2012, which was to be his final season of arbitration eligibility, and $14.25 million in each of the 2013-16 seasons.

A native of Austin, Texas, Danks is 54-56 with a 4.03 ERA (411 ER/917.2 IP) and 714 strikeouts in 150 starts over five major-league seasons, all with the White Sox.  Since the start of the 2008 season, he ranks third among American League left-handers with 605 strikeouts, fourth with 48 victories and 76 quality starts and eighth with a 3.77 ERA.

Danks’ contract includes some no-trade clause protections:

MLB.com also has learned that Danks holds full no-trade veto power in the first year of his deal and has limited no-trade considerations over the next four. That limited no-trade translates into six teams to which Danks can’t be traded without his approval.

Danks posted the best K/BB ratio of his major-league career last year:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB	Awards
2007	22	CHW	AL	6	13	.316	5.50	26	26	0	0	0	0	139.0	160	92	85	28	54	4	109	4	0	3	622	86	1.540	10.4	1.8	3.5	7.1	2.02
2008	23	CHW	AL	12	9	.571	3.32	33	33	0	0	0	0	195.0	182	74	72	15	57	1	159	4	0	7	804	138	1.226	8.4	0.7	2.6	7.3	2.79
2009	24	CHW	AL	13	11	.542	3.77	32	32	0	1	0	0	200.1	184	89	84	28	73	1	149	5	0	1	839	124	1.283	8.3	1.3	3.3	6.7	2.04
2010	25	CHW	AL	15	11	.577	3.72	32	32	0	1	1	0	213.0	189	93	88	18	70	2	162	4	1	2	878	115	1.216	8.0	0.8	3.0	6.8	2.31
2011	26	CHW	AL	8	12	.400	4.33	27	27	0	2	1	0	170.1	182	89	82	19	46	5	135	7	0	6	728	97	1.339	9.6	1.0	2.4	7.1	2.93
5 Seasons				54	56	.491	4.03	150	150	0	4	2	0	917.2	897	437	411	108	300	13	714	24	1	19	3871	111	1.304	8.8	1.1	2.9	7.0	2.38
162 Game Avg.				12	13	.491	4.03	34	34	0	1	0	0	208	203	99	93	24	68	3	162	5	0	4	877	111	1.304	8.8	1.1	2.9	7.0	2.38

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 12/29/2011.

And here’s audio of Kenny Williams and John Danks’ comments (2:12). And John Danks’ comments on CSN (4:17) and on print by Van Schouwen.