8 best moves Hahn has made in 8 years as Sox GM
Rick Hahn was named the White Sox general manager eight years ago this week.His tenure has undoubtedly been a tale of two halves, the second taken up by a rebuilding process that has put the team on the precipice of a new winning era.So when looking at his finest moves as the team’s GM, it should be no surprise that the list is packed with ones of a more recent vintage, the ones that have seemingly set the White Sox up for long-term success and perennial championship contention.Hahn has big moves in front of him, too, ones that could dictate whether or not the White Sox reach the ultimate goal of a World Series title. He’s currently on the hunt for a new manager. An important winter of player movement will follow.But right now, with the White Sox fresh off a season that saw them soar out of rebuilding mode and into contention mode, here’s a look at Hahn’s eight best moves in his eight years on the job.
The White Sox merely needed some veteran catching depth after the 2018 season and picked up McCann after he’d been cut loose by the Detroit Tigers. It worked out swimmingly, with McCann going from the .653 OPS hitter he was in five seasons in Motown to an .808 OPS guy in two seasons on the South Side, the first of which featured an All-Star appearance.
McCann got a ton of credit during Lucas Giolito’s transformation into one of the best pitchers in baseball, catching his no-hitter in August. And an even better offensive season in 2020 than the one that earned him an All-Star nod in 2019 has fans clamoring for the White Sox to find a way to keep McCann and Yasmani Grandal in an All-Star catching tandem. That might not be super likely, with McCann earning a shot at topping the depth chart elsewhere, but it’s a testament to the diamond-in-the-rough find that McCann was by Hahn.
Last offseason was the one White Sox fans had been waiting for, the one that saw their rebuilding team invest in some big-name free agents. Hahn spearheaded a spending spree that brought Keuchel and Grandal, two veterans with postseason know-how, aboard for the long haul.
Keuchel was terrific in his first season on the South Side, ranking second in the American League with a pencil-thin 1.99 ERA. He was, quite simply, one of the best pitchers in baseball in 2020. Grandal voiced his displeasure with his own performance during the year but still managed to rank put up a .351 on-base percentage that ranked third among qualified White Sox hitters, behind only the MVP candidates José Abreu and Tim Anderson. He ranked fourth in RBIs, sixth in home runs and led the team in walks while also playing Gold Glove caliber defense.
Not too shabby for the beginning of the two richest free-agent deals in franchise history. Of course, it’s the position these two put the White Sox in for the next few seasons that place them on this list of Hahn successes.
Hahn’s rebuilding plan wasn’t just to build a team capable of competing for a single season. Perhaps the No. 1 reason why the White Sox are seemingly set up for nearly a decade of contention is the front office’s ability to lock in some of its most exciting young talent far into the future.
Hahn & Co. started that trend with a long-term deal for Anderson before the start of the 2017 season. Then came a long-term deal for Jiménez before he played a single major league game before the start of the 2019 campaign. Robert, in the same boat as Jiménez, and Moncada got long-term contracts before the start of the 2020 season. All told, Anderson is under team control through the 2024 season, Moncada through the 2025 season, Jiménez through the 2026 season and Robert through the 2027 season.
That’s a lot of team control — and a lot of contending seasons — for those core members of this rebuilding effort.
An international free agent, the White Sox made the rare move of incurring a penalty in order to bring Robert into the organization. And though he’s only played 56 major league games, he looked worth every penny during his rookie season, flashing all the tools that were hyped during his tear through the minors in 2019.
Robert made jaw-dropping defensive plays, hit tape-measure home runs, showed off speed on the base paths and had teammates, coaches and evaluators across the league describing him as a future superstar. He’s an incredible weapon for the White Sox to have as they move into annual contention, only made possible by his signing in 2017.
Sale is arguably the best pitcher in White Sox history. But he was also the team’s biggest trade chip and the tail end of the 2016 season, when Hahn launched into rebuilding mode. The general manager swapped the All-Star left-hander in the first of three rebuild-defining trades, one bringing Moncada and Kopech into the organization.
Moncada showed his ability to be the team’s finest all-around player with a breakout 2019 season. And though he had an obvious down year in 2020, it stemmed from the aftereffects of a preseason COVID-19 infection that sapped his energy all season long. He still fought through it and played much of the schedule, an extraordinarily impressive display and show of dedication.
The jury remains out on Kopech, of course, who has just four big league games under his belt. He missed the entirety of the 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and elected not to play in 2020 while dealing with personal matters. While what he’ll be able to do remains a big question mark heading into 2021, the White Sox still see him as a key piece of their long-term future.
Crosstown swaps are a rarity, but Hahn pulled off perhaps the most impactful one since Sammy Sosa went to the North Side, dealing Quintana for a pair of top prospects in Jiménez and Cease. The trade will long be judged on a head-to-head basis, but the only thing that matters for the White Sox is how the guys they received affect their ability to contend for championships. And so far, so good, especially in the case of Jiménez, who is as important a piece of the team’s long-term planning as anyone.
Jiménez didn’t set the world on fire during his rookie season in 2019 but obviously figured things out toward the end of the year, with a red-hot month of September. In 2020, he might have flown under the radar a bit — what with José Abreu and Anderson involved in the AL MVP conversation — but he was excellent. All his rate stats were way up, including his .891 OPS that ranked 11th in the American League. He was all over the AL leaderboards, in the top 10 in hits, home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage.
Cease struggled a tad in 2020, troubled by walks, home runs and consistent jams all season long. But though he didn’t perform well enough for the White Sox to call on him in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series, they still see him as a big piece of the puzzle moving forward.
Of the three trades that powered the White Sox rebuild, this one might not end up going down as the finest. Moncada and Jiménez could blossom into perennial MVP candidates. They could be the most impactful members of the core, not to mention Kopech and Cease. But today, the best player acquired in these three deals has been Giolito, who is one of the best pitchers in baseball after back-to-back exceptional campaigns.
Giolito went from the pitcher with the worst numbers in baseball in 2018 to an All Star in 2019. He picked up where he left off in 2020, throwing a no-hitter to highlight another sensational season. He then put the team on his back with a remarkable performance in the franchise’s first playoff game in a dozen years. Giolito is the ace of the South Side staff and one of the best arms in the game.
Dunning came up during the season and made the first seven starts of his major league career, seemingly punching a ticket to be a part of the White Sox starting rotation come Opening Day 2021. López struggled for a second consecutive season, and his future role remains a bit of a mystery.
But thanks to Giolito’s 2019 and 2020 seasons, this is the best trade of Hahn’s tenure to date.
The White Sox signed Abreu ahead of the 2014 campaign, after he defected from Cuba, and all he’s done in the seven seasons since is become one of the most productive players in the history of a franchise that’s been around since 1901.
Abreu climbed to the top of the White Sox all-time leaderboards during his initial, six-year contract. Then he made Hahn’s job easy and basically guaranteed he’d return to the South Side in 2020. But any idea that Abreu’s second White Sox contract was merely a show of affection for a beloved player was proven wrong quickly, as Abreu turned in a career year in 2020 and showed he’s as much a centerpiece of this team as any of his younger teammates.
Abreu is the favorite to win the AL MVP after he led the Junior Circuit in hits, RBIs and slugging percentage; ranked second in home runs; third in runs scored; fourth in batting average; fifth in OPS; and in the top 10 in doubles and on-base percentage. And all the while, he’s been lauded for his off-field value, serving as a model major leaguer and a mentor to the youngsters who have followed him to the South Side.
Abreu has said for a long time he knew the White Sox of the future would be a very good and very talented team. It wouldn't be possible without him, the White Sox best move of the Hahn Era.
