8 people the Chicago White Sox should consider for GM if they fire Rick Hahn

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.

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.

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.

Beat out the New York Mets for David Stearns.

Stearns built the Milwaukee Brewers into a title contender despite being the smallest market club in baseball. He was hired in 2015 when he was 30.

Stearns shrewdly acquired Christian Yelich before the 2018 season and he went on to have an MVP season.

The team got to the NLCS that year despite not having an ace starting pitcher. Also, they were a few innings away from going to the World Series.

Corbin Burnes won an NL Cy Young while Stearns was in charge. The Crew made the playoffs from 2018-2021.

Stearns stepped down before this season with one year remaining on his deal. He is serving out that year in an advisory role. Once he is free, Stearns is rumored to be on New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s short list of candidates to run the team. It is believed Stearns is the only man on the list.

Reinsdorf was not a fan of Cohen joining the league’s ownership fraternity since Cohen is willing to spend money. Swooping in and hiring Stearns right out from under the Mets would be a big win for Reinsdorf.

Also, Stearns could bring manager Craig Counsell with him. Counsell’s contract is set to expire after the season, and it is unclear if he will stay with Milwaukee.

It would be a major coup if Jerry could get Stearns and Counsell. It would mean giving both a lot of money and Stearns a lot of power. Those are two things Reinsdorf is not inclined to do.

Tap this other Milwaukee Brewers front office person.

If Jerry wants to go with someone from the Brewers executive suite, there might be a cheaper option.

Tod Johnson is the Brewers’ amateur scouting director. He has had a great run of drafts.

The Brewers have five players in MLB Pipeline’s top 100 and three of them were drafted by Johnson.

Milwaukee is relying on rookies Sal Frelick, Joey Wiemer, and Brice Turang to help win the NL Central. These are all players Johnson drafted.

The Crew has done a great job of staying competitive by drafting players up the middle. Catcher, pitcher, second base, shortstop, and centerfield provide a better chance of getting big-league contributions because of the positional versatility. They do a great job of using the trade market to bolster their talent.

For example, Milwaukee was able to flip one prospect as part of a three-team trade to get William Contreras.

The Brewers have also done a good job of acquiring veteran talent and then later flipping them for prospects.

Johnson is part of a front office that has to be successful on shoestring budgets. Those are the budgets Jerry likes.

Tap one of these two from the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays have become a successful organization despite limited financial resources. They do it by drafting well, hitting on their international prospect signings, and then developing them.

Erik Neander has been running the Rays since 2021. He has a couple of lieutenants the Chicago White Sox should hire.

Peter Bendix is the senior vice president of baseball operations who assists Neander in roster management and talent development. Carlos Rodriguez is the assistant general manager with an extensive international scouting background.

It would be a good idea to leverage a front office that builds teams the way Reinsdorf likes it–on the cheap. The Rays also find exciting players and are great at developing pitching.

The Sox need more of what the Rays do in their organization if the franchise hopes to be a yearly contender.

Hire this front-office executive from the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians have been good at drafting and developing pitching. Chris Antonetti has been the president of baseball operations since 2015.

His right hand is Mike Chernoff, and it might be worth bringing him over to impart the way Guardians do things.

They developed a young roster that blew past the White Sox last year.

Get this guy from the Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers spend like they are in the second-biggest market in the Majors. They also operate like a small market team in how they draft and develop players.

Having a strong farm system has allowed the Dodgers to make midseason trades to bulk up their roster for a World Series run. They spend in the offseason to give them a chance to contend for a title.

Andrew Friedman has built the Dodgers into a juggernaut. It would make sense to hire someone from his front office.

Assistant general manager Jeff Kingston has experience with player development while he was with Mariners. He has also worked for the San Diego Padres.

The Sox could also try to lure general manager Brandon Gomes away, but he might want the president title that Jerry possibly will not hand out.

Jerry Reinsdorf could continue to champion diversity by hiring one of these two front-office executives.

One thing to give Reinsdorf credit for is he has been a big supporter of diversity in baseball.

He might want to go with a minority candidate to run the team. Eve Rosenbaum has moved up in the Baltimore Orioles organization to the assistant general manager.

The Orioles have built their farm system into the best in baseball. Baltimore’s ownership group might be even more dysfunctional than the White Sox.

Despite all the ownership issues with the Orioles, they are one of the best teams in baseball. They are also a team that likes to be successful on the cheap.

Billy Owens is the assistant general manager for the Oakland A’s. While the team is awful this year, it was constructed that way. The team is trying to move to Las Vegas, but before the teardown to get the team out of Oakland, the Athletics were one of the best organizations in player development.

Owens could bring that eye for talent and the Moneyball way of doing things to the Chicago White Sox.

No matter what, the Sox need new leadership with no ties to the organization. These candidates fit that description.