In a shocking development, the White Sox announced this afternoon that executive vice president Kenny Williams and senior vice president and general manager Rick Hahn have been relieved of their duties, effective immediately. The team, expected to be in the middle of a contention window following a rebuild at the end of the last decade, find themselves 49-76 heading into tonight’s game.
Williams first joined the White Sox as a player via the 3rd round of the 1982 draft. He debuted with the team in 1986 and spent parts of the following two seasons with the club. He rejoined the White Sox organization following his retirement as a scout in November of 1992 before becoming a special assistant to Jerry Reinsdorf in 1994. The following year, he was named director of minor league operations from 1995-1996 and served as vice president of player development from 1997-2000. Following the 2000 season, Williams was named general manager, just the third African American in baseball history to hold the position. He was elevated to the executive vice president role following the 2012 season, the role he served until this afternoon.
Hahn joined the White Sox organization in 2002 as the assistant general manager. He was promoted to general manager following the 2012 season. He was responsible for convincing Jerry Reinsdorf of the need for the rebuild and did a spectacular job of tearing down the major league team to the studs, bringing in a bevy of prospects. It was that next step, of surrounding those prospects with the right mix of free agent veterans, where Hahn failed, either of his own accord or due to meddling from his superiors.
The announcement from the White Sox says that they plan to have a “single decision maker to lead the baseball operations department” and that they anticipate having this person in place by the end of the season. Does Jerry Reinsdorf have it in him to bring someone new into the organization? Or will he promote from within? We should have the answer sometime in the next six weeks.
The Cubs, effectively tied for the third and final wild card spot after last night’s victory against the White Sox, have sent out post-season invoices to their season ticket holders for the first time since 2019. Thanks to a randomly selected combination assignment, I would end up with tickets to two games in each potential round, a slight downgrade from years past. I would maintain my normal seats through the NLCS but would end up relocated to the right field side should the team advance to the World Series.
The hits keep on coming for Liam Hendriks, who underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, ending his season and potentially his time with the White Sox. After being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma this offseason, Hendriks went through treatments and was declared cancer free. He made his season debut in May for the White Sox, but appeared in just five games before elbow inflammation caused him to be shut down. Surgery and rehab would likely keep him out of commission through the 2024 season.
With a little more than an hour left before the trade deadline, word came down that the White Sox had traded Jake Burger to the Marlins for Jake Eder, the team’s fourth-ranked prospect. Burger, selected by the White Sox in the first round of the 2018 draft, missed three minor league seasons between 2018 and 2020 due to two torn Achilles tendons and the pandemic before making his major league debut in 2021. He has broken out as an offensive force this season, hitting 25 home runs, which puts him in a tie for third place in the American League. Defensively, he is probably fated to be a designated hitter unless he makes major improvements.
The dismantling of the 2023 Chicago White Sox continued today, as pitchers Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly were traded to the Dodgers in exchange for Nick Nastrini, Jordan Leasure, and Trayce Thompson. Lynn and Kelly last teamed up Wednesday night, as they combined to give up six runs in the top of the fifth in the loss to the Cubs.
