Way back in 2017, a plucky startup named White Sox general manager Rick Hahn its “Chicago Person of the Year,” narrowly edging out, I don’t know, Bears rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky? José Quintana? Fred Hoiberg? It was a down year for sports in Chicago, to be honest, and Hahn made sense because he was the public face of the team’s radical shift in strategy.
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And that was the year in the White Sox rebuild, and while we didn’t know then it would work out — the results are still inconclusive until they get to, and then win, a World Series — we knew he added a lot of talent in 2017, most notably Eloy Jiménez, Luis Robert and Dylan Cease, all of whom are expected to play big roles in the postseason, starting this week.
Fast forward four years. The fans have returned in droves to Guaranteed Rate Field and the Sox survived a wave of injuries to win 93 games and the AL Central. I caught up with Hahn before Friday’s game, two days before the regular season finished, and this is what we talked about, with some slight editing for clarity and length.
What’s keeping you up at night going into the postseason?
Look, maybe I have a mild form of PTSD, but it’s just health. It’s just health. We had obviously what we’ll say is an extraordinary amount of adversity to overcome over the course of the year, and a portion of it was completely unforeseen. A guy like Eloy tries to make a play at the wall, you understand why it happened. We had a couple of guys in Luis (Robert) and (Nick) Madrigal blow out just running in a straight line without any contact — that’ll leave a mark on you, that will make you a little gun-shy. Luis left his feet the other day in right-center field trying to make a sliding catch, and based on the year we’ve had, the potential downside of doing that flashes through my head right now. So that’s the thing that keeps me up right now is health.
Look at Robert’s injury. On that day (May 2), you guys lost and were 15-12. He gets hurt and everyone’s panicking. You lose that game and come back two days later and you win 9-0. And then you win 7 of 8. Was that a time where you’re like, “OK, we can survive these injuries — we’ve already survived Eloy a little bit”?
Yeah, when they immediately happened, both Eloy and Luis, it’s hard not to let the worst-case scenario play out in your head. Losing a Silver Slugger outfielder, you think for the duration of the season, and it’s easy to see your plans fall apart before you played a single regular-season game. That said, the next day (after Eloy’s outfield injury in spring training) Tony (La Russa) has a meeting in the clubhouse and he tells Eloy, “You do your part to get back here and be able to contribute to us, and we’ll do our part to be in a position to win with you.” And that attitude, through each of the injuries, sort of permeated and was the message that was delivered, and the clubhouse carried it out.
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You certainly look at the roster and realize how dramatically different it was without those impact bats in it, but it probably led to this in some ways being an even greater season for the organization. And by that I mean the players that are drafted coming up and contributing — your Jake Burgers and Gavin Sheets of the world — who might not have necessarily been on the radar on Opening Day. Obviously, Andrew Vaughn being thrown into the fire at multiple positions, much less the work that the pro scouts did to help us get guys like Goody (Brian Goodwin) and Jake Lamb and Yermín Mercedes, Billy Hamilton, on the fly basically. Again, you’d prefer the way you drew it up to be the way it plays out, but this adversity did provide some opportunity for elements of the organization to shine, which is good.
And if you think about it, in the past years, especially during the playoff drought, depth was a huge issue with this team.
A hundred percent. When we started the rebuild, I think I was clear that the issue wasn’t players one through seven or one through nine on the roster; it was the issue that if Mat Latos’ season started going the wrong way or Austin Jackson gets hurt, we weren’t able to survive. It was an organizational depth problem, which is part of the reason we had to take a step back and reform this thing with a little broader skill set and better depth.
How much does that help give you confidence in your organizational health and that your scouts are picking the right guys? I know sometimes you pick the guy for the right reasons, it just doesn’t work out, but in this case, it seems like everyone had their own moments.
You’re absolutely right, and one of the things that might be silly, and it might just be because of where I sit as a GM, but one thing I’m most proud of is the fact that we had eight first-rounders from eight different drafts contributing at some point this year. Now granted, not all in huge roles like Vaughn, who was here all year, or (Garrett) Crochet, who was here all year, much less TA (Tim Anderson) and (Carlos) Rodón being All-Stars. But even getting Jake Burger to the big leagues, Zach Collins contributed here, Zack Burdi and Madrigal, and that’s an organizational win that speaks to the strength of our scouting directors and then the scouting staff, and in doing that, much less adding the (Aaron) Bummers and (Adam) Engels and (Danny) Mendicks, and more later-round picks, contributing.
Rodón, there’s probably not much you can say about him right now, but he pitched (Wednesday) and looked good enough. His velocity is not what he wants, but what’s the feeling on him going in this postseason?
I mean, look, he went out there the other day and pitched without the premium stuff that we had seen earlier in the year but was still very effective, which was a positive development. At this point, we not only have a decent amount of time before we actually have to set the postseason roster or the rotation, but even more time before his spot would likely come up. So we’re going to have more information over the coming weeks, in the coming days, and sort of adapt accordingly.
(Note: On Monday in a conference call with White Sox reporters, Hahn said he was confident Rodón would pitch in the postseason.)
Is your son the only White Sox fan in the world that’s excited for Houston having home-field advantage in the series? (Note: Jake Hahn is a freshman at Rice University in Houston.)
I am going to protect him a little bit in terms of some of the texts he has sent me in recent days about how the seeding pleases him, but he is actually set up because he has a fall break Monday and Tuesday, so for his schedule, he could attend all five games easily. So he’s thrilled with us being the three seed. That said, I’m sure he’ll be just fine if we happen to win in three.
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What’s been the biggest surprise for you this year?
I don’t want to call it a surprise, but it was great to see Carlos Rodón pitch the way that everyone who was involved in drafting him and developing him and how Carlos himself envisioned at the big-league level. That was pretty special.
When he threw the no-hitter, I felt like it was really uplifting to see him happy on that video call. I was so used to the postgames where he was pissed off at himself. I love it when a story like that happens.
There was no guarantee, obviously, after we non-tendered last year that it was going to happen here. Yeah, you know, he persevered and worked hard through all the injuries and worked with Ethan (Katz) to make some adjustments early in the offseason and through camp, and we’re fortunate that the two of them clicked and he was able to fulfill a good portion of what we all foresaw for him in our uniform.
La Russa has been such a hot-button issue. What’s been the thing you think he’s been best at this year with this specific team? Where did he really come in handy?
You know, it’s funny because I knew him socially through dinners with Jerry (Reinsdorf) and others over the last several years, but I didn’t really know him, other than by reputation, for what he would be like in the clubhouse. The two things that probably struck me the most are how humble he is and how quick he is to share credit with his coaches and others.
Obviously, I don’t think it would have surprised anyone if he had walked in, everyone knew his resume, and he said, “This is how I do things and this is how it’s gonna be,” and everyone falls in line. Instead, he made it clear early on, in his words, “I’m starting at zero, I got to earn the trust of the front office, I got to earn the trust of the players, earn the trust my coaches.” He obviously has his way of doing things, but he wanted to earn their trust because it’s the right way of doing things. And I think that was, for those that don’t know him well or haven’t seen him work, I think that would come as a surprise.
There was a quote the other day about him telling guys to make sure to have fun and enjoy this a little bit. I think that’s probably something people wouldn’t expect to hear.
I agree. He’s seen the memes of him running to home plate to protect José (Abreu) after he got hit by Cleveland. He’s seen the meme of him sitting in the corner of the dugout with his hat sideways in the Southside uniform and the Outkast “Ms. Jackson” lip-syncing from him, and he gets a kick out of those things like that. He enjoys it — he can laugh at himself. He can laugh at the lighter times in the game, but the bottom line is he is almost maniacally focused on how he’s gonna win that night’s ballgame.
That’s the No. 1 thing I thought about when he got hired, and that’s his M.O. If you ask him before games how he’s doing, he’ll say, “I’ll tell you how after the game.” Do you ever ask him that?
I have stopped because I’m tired of hearing, “I’ll tell you in seven hours,” “I’ll tell you at midnight,” or whatever. Obviously, it’s more of a courtesy when you see someone — “Hey, how are you doing?” So you have to consciously learn not to do that.
He loves this lifestyle, doesn’t he?
He loves it. He thrives in it. He clearly was missing the clubhouse environment, the travel. He missed being around the guys, the prep work, the late nights talking baseball. That’s who he is.
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He’s not on White Sox Twitter, but I know you check it out. How is your Twitter intake this year?
I’m not on it that much. I get it sent to me a decent amount. I got my kids or the PR staff or friends who see funny stuff. I only get the greatest hits. I get the really funny stuff usually sent to me.
So you’re not diving into the pain and anguish of White Sox fans every day?
No, not every day. God, no. Shoot, I feel it myself. I either get it from my dad or I get it from myself, my own feelings.
What did your dad say the other day? I heard you on the radio (on 670 The Score’s “Inside the Clubhouse”), and you said he was giving you shit about something.
I brought him and my mom division championship hats. I get home Friday from Cleveland and swing by their house, being a good son, and bring them a couple of hats, and he says to me, “Tell (Craig) Kimbrel not to throw his breaking ball to lefties anymore.” I told him, “I’m gonna get you The Score call-in number, and you can be Fred from Winnetka and you can give all your theories on how to get people out.” Then that night Kimbrel struck out Bradley Zimmer on four curveballs, and so I sent him a little pitch-selection chart and said, “Thanks for your help.”
So you didn’t tell Kimbrel that?
I did not pass that along because, like I said, he was punching out lefties with it that night. Fred from Winnetka doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
How do you feel about Kimbrel and the bullpen right now?
Good. Knock on wood, we got three games to get through right now, but with Ryan (Tepera) back, I feel like we’re going to enter at full strength and put guys in a good position. I think they’re going to play an important role in October. And obviously, look, there’s been some ups and downs over the last couple of months, but in the end, for better or worse, it was designed to pay dividends in October. So we’ll see how it plays out.
So to close this off, the bullpen is not keeping you up at night?
The bullpen is not keeping me up at night, no.
(Top photo: Ron Vesely / Getty Images)
