Times are a-changing for Williams, White Sox

On the surface, the White Sox made a ho-hum move Wednesday when they announced the hiring of Marco Paddy as assistant to general manager Kenny Williams.

But take a closer look, and you should get the sense this is not a routine transaction.

At this stage of a typical off-season, Williams would have made runs at Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder and C.J. Wilson.

He'd be fighting to retain free-agent starter Mark Buehrle.

At this stage of a typical off-season, Ozzie Guillen would have already made a half-dozen or so controversial statements, and middle son Oney's Twitter account would have done its usual damage.

These are different times for the White Sox — not that it's a bad thing.

The Sox are still licking their wounds from a 79-83 season, and Guillen has not been heard from since he made an abrupt exit with two games left on the schedule to manage the Marlins.

The White Sox are all but certain to lose Buehrle to a team with a better financial situation, and Williams has not been stalking even one big-name player this winter.

Which leads us back to Wednesday's hiring.

The 47-year-old Paddy will be in charge of the Sox' International Operations, an area sorely in need of an upgrade.

Paddy was not made available for comment Wednesday, and Williams did not respond to an interview request.

The White Sox are clearly going in a younger, and cheaper, direction, so they are turning to Paddy to help find talent in Latin America.

The Sox do have two key players — shortstop Alexei Ramirez and right fielder Dayan Viciedo — that hail from Cuba.

Both players were signed after defecting, and Ramirez and Viciedo felt comfortable joining the White Sox because of the presence of Guillen and former starting pitcher Jose Contreras, who also is from Cuba.

The Sox have had difficulty mining Latino talent for years, and they are obviously hoping Paddy can turn that around.

Paddy spent the past five seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays' director of Latin America operations.

During his tenure with the Blue Jays, Paddy signed pitcher Henderson Alvarez, who was twice selected to play in the prestigious Futures Game, promising infielder Adeiny Hechavarria, pitcher Roberto Ozuna and catcher Carlos Perez.

Paddy, a native of Panama, has the challenging task of trying to reestablish the White Sox' presence in Latin America.

Last February, Dave Wilder pled guilty after being involved in a kickback scheme targeting Latino players the Sox were trying to sign.

Wilder and two former White Sox scouts were accused of pocketing $400,000 in signing bonus money that was supposed to go to 23 prospects.

Williams hired former Bulls GM Jerry Krause to scout Latin America in 2010, but Krause abruptly resigned and took a job with the Arizona Diamondbacks after one year on the job.

sgregor@dailyherald.com