Current White Sox GM Rick Hahn publicly admits that the team has fielded calls from other GMs inquiring about the availability of veteran players. Though Hahn states that the Sox aren't ready to concede this season (he points to the 18 remaining games vs the first place Tigers), it seems the general consensus is that the team's play leaves Hahn with no choice but to take the path less traveled by his predecessor and current boss, Kenny Williams. Hahn knows the rebuild is coming. He just won't admit to it--yet.
Williams' tenure as GM is known for bravado and risk-taking. It's known for pulling off some savvy trades (Freddy Garcia), turning other team's trash into White Sox stars (Matt Thornton, Bobby Jenks), and making bargain free agent signings into key pieces of a World Series championship (AJ Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Tadahito Iguchi). It's also known for (at times foolishly) trading key prospects for veteran players who never pushed the Sox over the hump. For the most part, I like Kenny Williams but he left Hahn high and dry. The White Sox' farm system is bankrupt.
The White Sox have postponed the inevitable rebuilding for too long. My theory on why that is goes like this: Upper management knows the Sox have trouble drawing fans. They fear that multiple losing seasons would lead to low turnstile throughput, making it nearly impossible to turn decent profits. From that perspective, they are probably right. But they are wrong to mortgage the future year after year for little promise of achieving greatness. They choose to remain mediocre rather than allow themselves to be bad for a few seasons even though it would significantly raise the likelihood they are greatly improved a few years from now.
And worse, it is not Williams' nor Hanh's job to worry about profits or attendance. Their job is to construct a baseball team. Let the marketing and public relations departments worry about drawing fans to the park. The GM and President of Baseball Operations have to make baseball decisions--not business ones.
2007 would have been a really good time to rebuild. At that time, they had a host of veteran players with peak value. Players like Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, Mark Buehrle, Javier Vazquez, along with Dye, Pierzynski, Jenks, and Thornton, could have brought in a plethora of talented youngers. Instead of trading Jon Garland for 32-year-old Orlando Cabrera, they might have been able to acquire a 22-year-old version of him.
A 2007 rebuild means that in 2008 they wouldn't have traded Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney for Nick Swisher (the worst trade of the Williams era). It means that in 2009 they wouldn't have traded Clayton Richard for Jake Peavy. It means that in 2010 they wouldn't have traded Daniel Hudson for Edwin Jackson. It means that they never would have wasted well over $100 million signing Adam Dunn and claiming Alex Rios off waivers--and since signing Dunn, a Type A free agent, cost the Sox their first round pick in 2011, they'd have an extra high draft pick in their system right now too.
Rebuilding in 2007 means that Mark Teahen, Mark Kotsay, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, Will Ohman, Fransisco Liriano, Kosuke Fukudome, and God Forbid Jeff Keppinger never don the White Sox pinstripes.
Good riddance.
Yes, it also means they wouldn't have surprisingly won the American League Central Division in 2008. Big deal. They lost to Tampa 3-1 in the first round. Keeping status quo means they won exactly one additional playoff game over the past six years.
Had the Sox launched Buehrle, Dye, Konerko et al in 2007, they would have enough young prospects in 2013 that they'd actually be a pretty decent young team right now. Imagine a starting staff of Chris Sale, John Danks, Hudson, Richard, and Gonzalez. Not that that is a studly rotation bound to bring home another World Series, but those pitchers are 24, 29, 26, 28, and 27, and it doesn't even take into account what they might have gotten in return for those veteran players who carried the White Sox to a 72-90 record in 2007.
I firmly believe that had the White Sox bit the bullet and jettisoned the 2007 roster for the best available prospects, they'd be in the playoff hunt right now, in 2013. Instead, Sox fans might have to wait another six years for this upcoming rebuild to take shape. Ask any Pirates or Royals fan, it might take longer.
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