Rozner: White Sox, Hahn have not lost faith in process

The question isn't really about what the White Sox did wrong.

It's more along the lines of, who did they anger?

The baseball gods have displayed their repeated wrath over the past year, exacting revenge with lightning bolts and plagues, filling hospital wards with White Sox prospects and turning the fan base into caustic blasphemers.

So who's responsible?

“I'll admit there's been a little bit of gallows humor around here over the last year-plus with what's gone on,” GM Rick Hahn told me Friday. “Who's the one who did something bad in a past life? What do we have to do, sacrifice a chicken to end this thing?”

That's when Hahn chuckled. Really, you gotta laugh a little. The number of fluke injuries is so absurd and the list so long that there's not enough space available.

Crying about it is unlikely to help.

“In trying to remain as objective as possible,” Hahn said, “I think these things tend to even out over the long haul.

“In some, perhaps, mildly-twisted way, it's better that we're dealing with a cluster of bad luck now as opposed to, say, a year or two deeper into this process when the expectations will be a little higher at the big-league level.”

No one is trying to minimize the loss of two aces in Carlos Rodon and Michael Kopech. That is a dreadful setback.

But the road to Helena is paved with the careers of experts who have tried to determine what causes pitchers to blow out elbows and shoulders.

“Unfortunately, a certain percentage of them are just going to break,” Hahn said. “That said, there's an element of bad mechanics or overuse that could increase the chance of someone breaking.

“But in the current iteration of professional baseball, there's going to be a certain percentage of pitchers with the finest mechanics around, who follow all the precautions and best practices, and still a certain percentage will break.

“It's a Catch-22. If there's something we missed, we would have felt terrible, but on the opposite side there would have been something actionable to prevent going forward on other guys.

“But on any of the guys afflicted the last couple months or last couple years, obviously we've looked at it and talked about certain decisions along the way, and usage, and really there just hasn't been any smoking gun along the way.”

Last year, Luis Robert injured his thumb sliding … feet first. This year, Eloy Jimenez hurt his ankle … trying to make a catch at the wall.

It's not an institutional problem. Like it or not, it's bad luck.

“It probably feels more impactful or more painful because there's been so much coverage of our young players,” Hahn said. “We have so many prospects that have become known to fans, that our fans are paying close attention to.

“A certain percentage of those are going to get hurt and it feels more impactful to you because you've been following these guys, and it feels like a lot, but in reality it's probably a similar percentage of guys in the minors who get hurt throughout baseball during the course of the year.

“If there is a bright side to this, it's that the timing of all these things hasn't had a dramatic impact on where we're headed or the timing of when we get there.

“Robert is making up for lost time now and having a tremendous season and is putting himself on the fast track to getting here and helping us here.

“The pitchers who have gone down for an extended period, you can project them back and playing an important role on what we expect to be a very compelling and competitive club, and potentially championship club, next year and in the years that follow.”

It would be easy in a front office — that has suffered this many crucial injuries — to start second guessing the process and worry about timelines, but Hahn says it hasn't happened on the South Side.

“You try to look at the big picture, not just at the number of prospects that we have that have been healthy and are progressing, but also the timing of this entire rebuild,” Hahn said. “We knew there would be some setbacks along the way. Having some in Year 2 and Year 3 is far less damaging than having such pitfalls and adversity befall you in Years 5, 6 and 7.

“We choose to remain optimistic about how this will come together when it's time to contend for championships.”

As for the archaic notion that rebuilds simply don't work, the Royals, Cubs and Astros would probably disagree, and all of those clubs suffered injuries and mistakes along the way.

“From a leaguewide standpoint, you see the evidence that these things work,” Hahn said. “We haven't gotten to the point, by any stretch, that we can call ours a success. That only comes when it results in a parade.

“It's easy in hindsight, when you see the success those clubs had in the end, to forget there are pitfalls along the way that befell all those franchises, be it drafting the wrong guy or trading the wrong guy or signing the wrong guy.

“But in the end it was the result of remaining true to their mission and continuing to make strong baseball decisions until it added up to a championship-caliber organization.”

So, no, the White Sox have not lost faith in the process, as understandably painful as it's been for the fan base.

The White Sox themselves feel your agony.

But Hahn should consult Crash Davis before the next ceremony. They're gonna need a live rooster.