CHICAGO -- Ken Williams expects a very active and interesting Winter Meetings beginning on Dec. 8 in San Diego, based on the conversations he's already heard during Hot Stove talk getting increasingly warmer by the day.

"I really cannot remember a time where so many good players have been discussed at the General Managers Meetings leading up to the Winter Meetings," said the White Sox executive vice president, whose tenure as general manager ran from the 2001 season through '12, before Rick Hahn took over. "It's going to be awfully fun once the Winter Meetings kick off. You're going to have some scrambling going on, and I like it like that."

Tuesday marked the White Sox first significant offseason move, with the team agreeing to terms with left-handed reliever Zach Duke on a three-year, $15 million deal. Williams joked that if it was up to him and Hahn, they would have started in September and October filling out the roster. But the agents and players don't seem to be on the same timetable.

Williams said that the Duke signing was part of an overriding offseason message being worked at by the White Sox.

"The only message we want to send at the end of the day is when our roster is complete, people can dream again," Williams said. "The difference is this time, because of how things have transpired the last couple of years, we've been able to build from the bottom up a little bit, and we've got a lot of youth, and good, talented youth.

"If we can supplement the right guys, the right veterans, and get some leadership in the mix, we can start to have some exciting baseball again on the South Side. But we have some work to do, still."