When his last two rebuilds were in progress and the to-do list lacked immediate action items, Rick Hahn's ability to say nothing in 30-second chunks helped pass the time.
At a time where his second attempt at rebuilding has crested and receded, empty answers echo endlessly, because nothing is the least useful thing to hear after a season where everything went wrong.
Alas, saying something does not come naturally to him. The guy who used parades as his primary unit of success painted a picture of a franchise without any real initiative.
“A year ago, we’re coming off a division championship, we’re wildly prognosticated to win the division going away,” Hahn said as the sun was setting on the Grandchester Grand Hyatt Hotel on Monday. “So, a blockbuster or roster-shaking move was probably a little less on the agenda. This year, we have to be open-minded given the way we performed in ’22. Does it mean that’s what’s going to happen? Not necessarily, but we at least have to be open-minded to something like that.”
And the guy who said a week ago that "the message that this is an organization that is a potential destination for premium players is an important one" now says they're waiting for the premium players to sign elsewhere.
“We are not driving that bus,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “In terms of the mega-free-agent deal, I think some of those are probably going to have to come together in the coming days to lead to a little more activity in the other markets. ”
Which is just about what he said during the 2017 winter meetings, when the White Sox were in full scrap-seeking mode.
For now, another wave of short-term, likely one-year signings to eat innings looks to be their speed, and Hahn is hoping those are the type of guys who will be great values after the dust settles from larger signings.
“We’re going to have to see how the markets unfold over the coming weeks and perhaps months and be opportunistic to fill those needs as the opportunities arise,” Hahn said. “It might take until after the first of the year until we truly have a sense of what’s available. I think we signed Derek [Holland] right before Christmas, we signed [Anthony] Swarzak in late January or something like that, so those might take some time.”
Perhaps this is the winter where Hahn successfully augments the roster by converting on actually exciting targets, but the White Sox's track record suggests that whatever eggs they're not putting in Pedro Grifol's basket are being dispersed to other non-playing personnel, be it new conditioning lead Geoff Head or field coordinator/baseball handyman Mike Tosar.
In the meantime, you'll have to settle for low-level Liam Hendriks rumors, which sound more like other teams asking than the White Sox shopping.
