Chicago White Sox
Even before being promoted from his assistant’s role to White Sox GM in 2013, Rick Hahn was perceived to be on solid footing on the South Side.
As recently as a year ago, the perception among Sox fans was of Hahn as the savant who negotiated trades that filled Chicago’s prospect cupboard to overflowing: Lucas Giolito, Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Reynaldo Lopez, Eloy Jimenez, Ian Clarkin.
To this point, for the most part, those prospects remain just that – prospects. Lopez, Moncada and Giolito are all Sox regulars, but Moncada is carrying a batting average in the .230s while Giolito has a 5.81 ERA. Lopez, 7-9 with a 3.94 ERA to date, has delivered the most actual performance. Kopech, meanwhile, is out until (at least) 2020 recovering from arm surgery, while Clarkin and Jimenez remain in Triple A.
The question, then, becomes the limit – if any – of the patience of team president Kenny Williams and owner Jerry Reinsdorf. If they remain as positive as Sox fans all of those kids are future stars and the team’s true salad days are immediately on the horizon, then Hahn is probably on solid turf.
Why wouldn’t Williams and/or Reinsdorf come to that conclusion? The team’s record is one reason. Since Hahn’s promotion, the White Sox have not had a single winning season, much less played a post-season game, and have not finished higher than fourth in the AL Central. His winning percentage is .433.
Attendance may also be a nettle. The White Sox will draw fewer than 1.6 million fans this season, their smallest attendance in nearly two decades and their third straight season of decline. In the last pre-Hahn season, 2012, the Sox drew 1.97 million, a figure they haven’t approached since.
Mike Rizzo
Mike Rizzo was named general manager of the Washington Nationals prior to the 2010 season. The Nats were terrible, but Rizzo fired field manager Jim Riggleman and hired Davey Johnson, who needed just one season to take them to the NL East throne room.
When Johnson failed to repeat, Rizzo fired him and hired Matt Williams, who promptly took the Nats to a second NL East title.
When Williams failed to repeat in 2015, Rizzo diagnosed he problem as the manager’s too-hot competitive fire. He fired Williams and replaced him with the ultra-easy going Dusty Baker, who took the Nats to consecutive NL East titles in 2016 and 2017.
But when Williams failed to win a post-season series, Rizzo fired him and brought in Dave Martinez. This past April Nationals ownership signed Rizzo to a two-year extension, everybody affiliated with the team assuming they would breeze to a third straight divisional title and — probably, hopefully, maybe if the fates allowed — actually win a post-season series or three.
Obviously, that didn’t happen.
The new two-year deal may insulate Rizzo from the prospect of team owner Ted Lerner turning the executioner’s axe on his GM. But given the consistency with which expectations have exceeded reality in Washington, it’s not out of the question that Martinez will be Rizzo’s last manager hiring, especially seeing one of the most consistent jobs in the San Francisco Giants suddenly in flux.