White Sox: Rick Renteria, Rick Hahn Look Foolish After Opening Day Loss

The White Sox opening day loss to the Royals brings to light some questionable decisions made by Rick Hahn and Rick Renteria.

The White Sox lost their first game of the season to the Royals on Thursday 5-3, scoring all their runs in the ninth inning.

This loss, and the many that will follow brought some of Rick Renteria and Rick Hahn’s questionable decisions to light.

I’ll start with some good news, which was that Carlos Rodon pitched pretty well for the first five innings of the game, giving up only one run. Yoan Moncada also played well defensively and reached base twice.

Renteria’s poor decision came in the sixth inning when he left Rodon in the game when he was clearly tired and didn’t have his stuff anymore. The White Sox spent all of their money and resources on the bullpen this season, so why not actually take advantage of it?

If Nate Jones had come into the game earlier, they could have left the inning only trailing one to zero. Instead, Renteria foolishly left Rodon in the game as he went over 100 pitches and gave up two more runs. This would cost them later.

One of the runs was also due to the poor defense of subpar baseball player Yolmer Sanchez, who in addition to his error, had zero hits in four at-bats, while also making the final out of the game. If Hahn had actually made a good offer for Manny Machado, then Sanchez would be on the bench (or off the roster) of today’s game where he belongs.

Of course, Hahn always has a new excuse for not signing Machado, which he recently blamed on a tweet that made the White Sox look bad. If Twitter is preventing you from being good at your job, maybe you shouldn’t have that job?

Eloy Jimenez struggled in his Opening Day debut, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.  I wouldn’t really hold this against him, as it was his first game in the major leagues. I do however hold it against White Sox management because this shouldn’t have been his first game in the majors. He needed to be up here last year, so he could have learned major league pitching and had a better season this year. This likely won’t affect his long-term career, but he probably would have played better today if it hadn’t been his first game.

One down, 161 to go. Good grief. At least this result is the opposite from last year, so maybe the Sox will go 100-62. More likely this season will be a repeat of last year, with no higher-ups getting fired, which they would be in any other baseball organization.

The White Sox fall to 419-554 (135 games below .500) under Hahn as their general manager, who is now somehow in his seventh year at that position. How much worse will it have to get before he is removed?