Williams, Hahn and the White Sox: A front office mid-term grade for 2023
By Bill Felber
Acquired or traded
The White Sox didn’t do much in team-to-team deals, but what they did do has proven to be at least modestly useful. Since the end of 2022, Williams and Hahn acquired four major leaguers from other teams to a gain of +1.1 WAA.
The best transaction was the December swap with San Francisco that landed reliever Gregory Santos. He has appeared in 34 games with a +0.9 WAA. The White Sox recently obtained journeyman Touki Toussaint in a waiver deal with Cleveland, and his first (and to date only) appearance went well.
They got Nick Padilla on a waiver pickup from the Cubs, but he has made only two appearances to no particular impact.
The outflow from Chicago’s South Side has been minimal. Jake Marisnick was sold to Detroit and Nick Solak waived to Atlanta, and neither will be missed.
Veteran reliever Jose Ruiz, a bullpen fixture since 2018, was sold in April to Arizona, for whom he has made 26 appearances. But his WAA contribution to the D-Backs’ growing hopes of contending in the NL West has to date been exactly 0.0.
For Williams and Hahn, the bottom line assessment of this aspect of their game is modestly successful. They haven’t done much, but that also means they haven’t screwed anything up. The return, while not overwhelming, is at least positive.