Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf finally cleans house, removing GM and EVP

It took Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf about two years too long, but he finally woke up to the reality on Wednesday that his front office leadership team needed an overhaul.

The Chicago White Sox announced Tuesday night that they have fired long-time executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn. Williams had been president since the end of the 2012 season, when Hahn was hired to succeed him in the post Williams had held since 2001.

Under their joint leadership, the Chicago White Sox have been one of MLB’s major disappointments of 2023. An overwhelming preseason favorite to dominate the AL Central, Chicago is 49-77 entering play Wednesday and 16.0 games out of first place in what is widely viewed as baseball’s weakest division.

The Sox rank 25th in runs scored per game, 29th in OPS, 26th in ERA,  and 27th in runs allowed per game. Only the Oakland A’s, Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies have fewer wins than Chicago’s 49.

This season will mark the second consecutive one in which the White Sox have been one of the game’s premier disappointments. Entering 2022 as defending divisional champions and also heavily favored to repeat, they finished 81-81 and 11.0 games behind the Cleveland Guardians.

During the decade long joint tenure of Williams and Hahn, the Sox have a composite record that is 40 games below .500, and a .487 percentage. They have only reached postseason play twice. In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, they lost a first round series to Oakland, and in 2021 Houston beat them 3-1 in the first round.

The flaws in the 2023 Sox flow from decisions made several years ago, many of which were highly praised at the time.

Williams and Hahn entered 2023 with 26 members of their 40-man roster who either were playing under long-term contracts or had 2022 experience with the team. That group of players represented the heart and soul of the club that was expected to dominate the division.

It included such names as Dylan Cease, Lucas Giolito, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert, Yasmani Grandal, Tim Anderson and Reynoldo Lopez. The acquisitions of Giolito, Moncada, Jimenez and Michael Kopech in trades were heralded at the time as franchise-changers.

For the most part, they have been nothing of the sort.

Measured by Wins Above Average, that core group that was supposed to carry Chicago to division dominance vastly underperformed in 2023. Veterans brought to the South Side prior to the end of the 2022 season have to date produced a collective -11.5 WAA for this year’s Sox. Prior to his trade to Los Angeles, Lance Lynn was at -2.3, Moncada is -1.3, Anderson is -3.0, Grandal is -2.0, and Gavin Sheets is -1.4.

That’s too many significant holes to plug and too many underperforming veterans.

Prior to and during the 2022 season, the various moves made by Williams and Hahn cost Chicago eight games in the standings as measured by WAA. The White Sox finished five games out of a playoff spot. The math says their moves cost Chicago that playoff spot.

And it wasn’t the first time the front office could be accused of inadvertently sabotaging the team. In 2017, the various Williams-Hahn dealings netted -19.0 games of impact on the Sox as measured by WAA. Chicago that year finished 18 games out of a postseason berth.

That makes Williams and Hahn the only management team in 100 years to have twice maneuvered the Sox out of postseason contention.

Through 2022, the average short-term impact of the Williams-Hahn operation (that’s counting only moves made since the end of the previous season) has been just under negative one-half game as measured by WAA, with negative impacts in seven of their 10 seasons

Beyond that, Bleacher Report recently ranked the White Sox farm system as second-worst in baseball, ahead of only the Astros.

The removal of Williams and Hahn comes at a time of turmoil on the South Side, following release of a report that the franchise is considering options for relocating when its lease at Guaranteed Rate Field expires in six years. The Sox have played at site within a few blocks of its current home since the franchise was established in 1901.