White Sox GM Hahn: More trades die on the vine than come to fruition
When it comes to trade rumors, Chicago White Sox general manager Rick Hahn never confirms anything, and he's usually in denial.
Hahn was surprisingly candid at SoxFest Saturday morning, telling a packed room of fans at the Hilton Chicago about a potential deal - most likely involving starting pitcher Jose Quintana - falling apart on Christmas Eve.
"There are so many of these (trades), so many more that don't happen than actually happen," Hahn said at a "Your White Sox" seminar with manager Rick Renteria. "I always get asked, 'How close are you to making another move; is there anything hot right now?' It's really sort of black or white for me. It's either we have a deal or we don't because there is so much that can go wrong, ranging from obviously not being able to get a meeting of the minds on a transaction with the other GM to the medical review to ownership to sometimes it leaks out in the media and that sort of muddies the water a little bit, whether it's criticism or other clubs jumping in to sort of alter the landscape.
"We try to keep everything as quiet as it can be, fly under the radar and then surprise people when the deal is finally consummated. But these things fall apart a lot. I try not to get too disheartened by it. As I said, far more of these things die on the vine than actually come together in the end."
Straight talk:
Rick Renteria is the only Latino manager in major-league baseball, and the new Sox skipper's ability to speak Spanish and English should give him a big advantage when it comes to communicating with players.
Renteria agreed, to a point.
"The most important thing is, whether I speak English or Spanish, when I present an idea, if it's not clearly thought out, if it's not articulate, if it does not present what I'm trying to get out of them, it really doesn't matter whether I speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean," Renteria said. "It doesn't matter.
"The most important thing is the message we present to our players is very clear and very concise and they understand exactly what we're looking for in all areas, whether it's hitting, pitching or fielding. The game of baseball is about execution, so I also have to execute in my presentation with the players, whether it's in English or Spanish."
Frank talk:
Former star Frank Thomas was featured at a SoxFest seminar Saturday, and he again had strong feelings about players suspected of using performance enhancing drugs going to the Hall of Fame.
Thomas, the White Sox's career leader in home runs (448), RBI (1,465), doubles (447), walks (1,466), runs scored (1,327) and OPS (.996), was elected into Cooperstown in 2014.
"Not happy," Thomas said without mentioning names. "I worked hard and had to play against them, guys that cheated. I knew when they were normal and when they were artificial."
Looking ahead:
GM Rick Hahn has been stressing the current rebuild is still in its infancy stages, but that doesn't mean he won't be open to adding outside veterans if a young core is in place and proven help is needed.
"It has to be merited," Hahn said. "We need to be in a position where some of these players we've acquired or drafted or will acquire, have started to coalesce as a championship core that needs to be augmented from the outside, and ideally augmented by very impactful players that will be available at some point here in the coming years."