8 people the Chicago White Sox should consider for GM if they fire Rick Hahn
By Todd Welter
The Chicago White Sox might be making some changes to their front office.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports the team is conducting internal reviews to figure out if major changes to the front office or coaching staff are needed.
Maybe owner Jerry Reinsdorf is finally hearing the fans’ pleas to fire general manager Rick Hahn and manager Pedro Grifol. Although local radio station, 670 the Score’s baseball beat reporter Bruce Levine reported that the reviews are part of the team’s normal evaluation process.
The White Sox have informed the beat reporters who cover the team that the internal organization interviews and vetting going on is nothing that the front office wouldn’t do in any under performing year. Report per @BNightengale
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) August 21, 2023
It should not take the review long to figure out the Sox are a dumpster fire this season. The team got off to an 8-21 start and has never recovered.
Reports came out after the trade deadline of the clubhouse being dysfunctional. Now they are even rumors out there that the team could leave Chicago for Nashville someday.
It is White Sox baseball baby, where chaos happens.
Back to Pedro Grifol. He was hired in the offseason to clean up the wreckage Tony La Russa left behind. Turns out, La Russa was not the problem.
Instead, Grifol might not get a second season as the team’s manager.
It took him until after the trade deadline to finally realize the franchise’s lack of leadership in the clubhouse. Also, it was the 73rd loss of the season to the Chicago Cubs that finally got Grifol to say it was the toughest defeat of the year.
.@LaurenceWHolmes: “Pedro (Grifol) can’t get his head out of his own ass, because he keeps talking about wins like White Sox fans care about your win total. That ship sailed in April. No one cares. No one.”
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) August 17, 2023
Listen to full segment: https://t.co/Ok2TGlsJpP pic.twitter.com/tZiqBnlRE1
He has chosen to play veterans over younger players in a lost season, and well, Grifol’s manager performance is showing why the Kansas City Royals chose to hire someone to be the manager from outside the organization rather than give him a promotion.
Hahn promised World Series parades once the contention window opened up in 2020. Instead, it has been figuratively slammed shut on his hands. You can blame his horrible roster construction for that.
To Rick’s credit, he did a good job of getting quality prospects back at the trade deadline.
Injuries have also ruined the Chicago White Sox’ title hopes. Hahn did do a complete overhaul of the training staff, but injuries are still ravaging the team.
Also, Hahn has made bad free-agent decisions (Yasmani Grandal and Dallas Keuchel) and the farm system was one of the worst in the league before the trade deadline.
The team has won two playoff games during Hahn’s 11-year reign as general manager. That screams the Chicago White Sox desperately need new leadership.
It is time for Hahn and Grifol to go. Also, it is time for Kenny Williams, the team’s president of baseball operations, to head into retirement or a special advisor role.
Since Kenny took the title promotion, we have no clue who is running the Chicago White Sox.
Maybe it is Hahn making the final call or maybe it is Williams, but no one knows for sure because Kenny does not talk to the media much. It could be Jerry pulling on the strings—see La Russa being hired in 2021 as the manager as an example.
Jerry Reinsdorf needs to bring someone in from outside the Sox family and be given complete authority to run the team. We need to know who is officially in charge of the White Sox.
The best leadership model to follow is the current trend of a strong president of baseball operations calling the shots who will address the media when needed and a trusty general manager by his or her side.
The likely outcome will be Hahn moves into an advisor role and Kenny promotes Chris Getz to general manager and the guessing game of who is running things will continue. Then the Sox will have four people to guess who is running the show.
The organization needs someone from outside those loyal to Reinsdorf to update the way the Chicago White Sox do things.
It would be great to lure Theo Epstein to the Southside. The problem is Jerry would probably have to give him an ownership stake. Also, Epstein is great at building a championship team, but not so good at a team that sustains success. Finally, Theo is probably going to be the commissioner someday.
There are some other candidates Reinsdorf could go with if he chooses to shake things up in the front office.