Chicago White Sox: 3 reasons Rick Hahn was fired
The Chicago White Sox made some big decisions. After a horrible season, they decided to finally fire Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams.
It was a long time coming as the two have not done well in their roles recently. There have been a couple of good flashes but it all came crashing down.
In the case of Rick Hahn, he was the general manager. He took the credit and the blame when things went either good or bad for the White Sox.
Now that he is gone, this is a good time to think about the three things that got him fired. These three reasons explain it all:
1. Pedro Grifol was a disaster of a hire
The Chicago White Sox do not have a good manager in Pedro Grifol.
The Chicago White Sox hired Tony La Russa to be the manager after the 2020 season ended. However, that was not Rick Hahn's doing.
Jerry Reinsdorf went above everyone that works in baseball operations under him and hired his old friend from back in the day.
Obviously, that was a disaster of a decision made by Reinsdorf. La Russa, one of the greatest managers in Major League Baseball history, didn't do well in his second stint with the White Sox.
Coming into this year, Hahn was able to hire his guy following the departure of La Russa. After a long search, he hired Pedro Grifol to be the guy.
Of course, Grifol is just as bad if not worse than La Russa. He wasn't fired (yet) but his not working out is a big reason this season is a failure.
The hope is that the new general manager can find a good manager that helps the White Sox take progressive steps forward.
2. Poor evaluation of talent
Rick Hahn is one of the worst evaluators of talent in team history.
Throughout his tenure as the general manager of the Chicago White Sox, Rick Hahn was always a horrific evaluator of talent.
Everyone in the league thought Yoan Moncada was going to be a superstar. He was the number-one prospect in the league at the time of the trade. He didn't make those rankings but he certainly listened to them.
There have been some good players that had tremendous seasons but nothing was ever able to last with this team.
There were a lot of players that appeared to be amazing but once they got to the White Sox they started to really fail.
Most of his trades and signings involved mediocre to bad players. He was also terrible with the MLB Draft. He made tons of selections and most of them turned out to be busts. Drafting, signing, and trading all need to improve with whoever replaces Hahn.
3. The rebuild totally failed
The Chicago White Sox didn't see long-term success like they promised.
The Chicago White Sox started the rebuild when they traded Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox for Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, and two other prospects.
Of course, Sale and the Red Sox went on to win the World Series in 2018. The White Sox didn't win anything since making that trade which led to a complete rebuild.
None of the trades worked out well enough for the White Sox to even win a playoff series let alone the World Series. It is a tough pill to swallow.
The rebuild was a complete failure and it is mostly Rick Hahn's fault. Of course, Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams, and Tony La Russa amongst others also get blamed but Hahn was seen as the mastermind.
Everyone believed that this thing was going to work for a while. Unfortunately, it failed and Hahn is one of the two paying the price for it.
He believed in this thing and he even tried to convince people that it would work next year. He won't get to see it through though which is a great thing for the franchise because it clearly wasn't working. Again, the rebuild totally failed.
Next. The 15 worst contracts in Chicago White Sox history. dark