Rozner: Williams, Chicago White Sox in a great spot

The executive vice president of the Chicago White Sox sat in the dugout Thursday afternoon and watched from 30 feet away as Rick Hahn and Ricky Renteria were interrogated by the media before the home opener.

A subdued Kenny Williams was quite happy to be away from the throng, to be in the shadows - and sleeping more than he has in decades.

He's not even bothered by the unending - and frequently unfair - criticism of his time as GM, which produced the first World Series title for the franchise in 88 years.

"The ironic part of that is for a number of years I had to fight for - when I became general manager - respectability and confidence from our fan base that we would go for it," Williams said. "People didn't believe that we would go after it. Then, we're criticized for going after it too much.

"The interesting thing is the direction of the ballclub - any ballclub - is typically a group decision, and it has been around here.

"We were on the cusp a lot of those years. We were picked a number of those years to be on top, and ultimately on the back end of things we were criticized."

Williams stopped and smiled a knowing smile.

"I can't do anything about the way people perceive me and my tenure from the past or my role in the present," Williams said. "All I can do is keep my head down and do what's best for this baseball team."

The reality, says Williams, is that the current plan is one they talked about many times during the years they eventually chose to take another shot at winning, and he's excited that the Sox have chosen this path.

"This is something that I feared I would never have an opportunity to be a part of in my career, a rebuild from the ground up," Williams said. "So while at times you look and you go, 'Man, I wish we were thought of and talked about like the rest of the teams that are expected to win,' you understand this is part of the process.

"The process demands patience and discipline. It's one thing that Rick and I talk about all the time when we're looking at out boards and debating things, having the discipline to allow certain guys who maybe weren't necessarily thought of as being part of a championship club in the future, but having the discipline to allow them to play their way into the picture."

Guys, perhaps, like Matt Davidson, Adam Engel or Yolmer Sanchez, to name a few.

"Understand that, yes, we could have maybe gone out and gotten a veteran, free-agent stopgap," Williams explained. "But every championship team has their surprises, guys who weren't highly thought about, but ended up being a key component of a championship club.

"So you allow them to play and you allow yourself the exhale of knowing that you're doing right by the process, also knowing it can be difficult at times in the win-loss column."

There is daily conversation in White Sox Nation about when this will come together. The Sox are ahead of schedule given what they've been able to do through the trades of Chris Sale, Adam Eaton and Jose Quintana, but as for whether it's 2019 or 2020, Williams believes the young guys will make that call.

"What I try to counsel Rick and the coaching staff on is let's prepare them and not put any limitations on them," Williams said. "We won't be the ones to tell them when it's time to win. They'll tell us.

"I hear a lot that not all of these guys will make it, but I can't think like that. When we acquire that player, I think - based on our evaluations - that the player will be what I thought that player would be when we got him.

"I know logically that not each one works out, but that's for other teams' guys to not work out."

Williams laughed when he said it. Obviously, he knows they can't possibly hit at 100 percent, but with the sheer number of top prospects they've acquired, the percentages are in their favor.

"It's about getting back to that level for the fans and being able to sustain it. When you build something like this, you have a chance to sustain it," Williams said. "The way we had to do it before - and that was just our circumstance - we had to patch it together.

"That's not an easy thing to do. It may have seemed like it from the outside, but it wasn't."

And with that, Williams smiled again and moved on without anyone interrupting his quiet Opening Day on the South Side.

He couldn't be happier about it.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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