Can White Sox GM Rick Hahn finish the rebuild?

He's been on the job four seasons, and the Chicago White Sox have finished last in the AL Central once and fourth place three times.

Since the 2013 season, the White Sox have a combined 290-358 record.

In a pass / fail business, the numbers don't add up for Rick Hahn. But considering what the Sox once were and what they now aspire to be, the 46-year-old general manager's grade is incomplete.

Fed up with patching rosters together around a handful of quality players, Hahn finally stepped up and blew the whistle on the White Sox last July.

“We're mired in mediocrity,” the GM said. “That's not the goal. That's not acceptable. The goal was to put ourselves in a situation to win a championship and (being) stuck at .500 or around .500 doesn't do that. We may well have to adjust and take a longer-term view and take a different approach going forward.”

With Hahn making the biggest push, the White Sox finally have adjusted.

Considering they've made only one playoff appearance — and have only one playoff win — since storming to the 2005 World Series championship, something had to change.

On July 31 of last season, Hahn launched a needed rebuild when he traded veteran relief pitcher Zach Duke to the St. Louis Cardinals for young center fielder Charlie Tilson.

“I have said and will reiterate that where we are at right now, essentially in the middle of the pack, is not acceptable,” Hahn said after the Duke deal. “Our approach of trying to piece things together to find a way to contend each year hasn't gotten us to where we've been able to have sustained success.

“So we've had a number of very open and honest conversations internally involving Jerry (Reinsdorf), Kenny (Williams) and myself about where we are and what's the best way to get to where we want to be.”

Since taking control of the Sox in 1981, Reinsdorf has strongly preferred veteran players over prospects. And when Williams was general manager from 2001-12, he wouldn't hesitate to trade young players for old.

That strategy paid off in 2005, but it hasn't worked for a decade. Something had to change, and it has.

After trading Duke and then veteran catcher Dioner Navarro, Hahn followed up with a pair of major moves on consecutive days in December.

He sent disgruntled ace starter Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox on Dec. 6 for second baseman Yoan Moncada, starting pitcher Michael Kopech, outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe and reliever Victor Diaz.

On Dec. 7, Hahn traded outfielder Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals for starters Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning.

Just like that, the White Sox have a farm system that is now ranked No. 5 by Baseball America after checking in at No. 23 last year.

Give Hahn credit for getting the rebuild off to a promising start, and give Williams and finally Reinsdorf credit for getting on board with the plan.

But keep the incomplete grade for Hahn in mind.

While Moncada, Giolito, Lopez and Kopech are now rated as the Sox's No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 prospects, more young talent is needed if the franchise hopes to start contending in, say, 2019.

Hahn is still waiting on a suitable haul in a Jose Quintana trade, and he's also trying to get maximum trade value for veteran players such as David Robertson and Todd Frazier.

But adding prospects such as Moncada, Giolito, Lopez and Kopech — along with drafting players such as Zack Collins, Zack Burdi and Alec Hansen — indicates Hahn and the White Sox are moving in the right direction.

“To see these guys in this clubhouse and on the back fields, to see the second wave of guys that will be coming after this first wave of prospects and to sit down and talk to Rick about the possibilities trade-wise we may have out there in the future, free agency, international signing-wise, we're in full go mode and it's exciting,” Williams told reporters late in spring training. “A lot of us around here needed this kind of jolt. So yes, we were full-go in terms of all being on the same page wanting to get this done. We still have a ways to go.”

Trading Sale and Eaton in rapid succession clearly showed Hahn was serious about tearing it down and starting over, but he's been quiet for over three months.

Rival general managers have grumbled about the high price Hahn is asking for Quintana and others, but the White Sox's GM remains confident his patience will pay off.

Even if he has to wait until the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline to make more moves, Hahn is determined to do the rebuild right.

“We've been committed to building through the draft, trying to retain some of our minor league assets as we've accumulated them but at the same time trying to win in Chicago,” Hahn said. “A lot of people have said that's a difficult errand to execute, it's a difficult path and one you don't tend to see throughout the game these days. You tend to see teams going for the full teardown. You saw many of them in the National League this year and you've seen clubs execute that strategy very successfully, including the Cubs.

“So I do feel that you see the template for picking one route versus the other, and you do run a risk of having half-measures, so to speak, when you try to serve two masters, when you try to serve the future as well as the present.

“We've tried that, and we've had obviously not the success we've wanted in Chicago going that path. We aren't going to back down from it being a challenge. We aren't going to shy away from it just because other clubs haven't done it. At the same time we have to be fully aware and fully cognizant of the fact it hasn't work thus far, and therefore something has to change.”