'I don't have an answer for that': White Sox's Hahn remains puzzled by team's struggles

Before Monday, general manager Rick Hahn last spoke to the media on Memorial Day.

At that time, the White Sox were 11 games under .500 (22-33) and 6 games out of first place in the AL Central.

“What we want is to be in contention and obviously win this division at the end of the year,” Hahn said on May 29. “There will come a point where it becomes apparent that if it's not very likely to happen, at that point we'll have to make that final decision about direction. It's not a decision we have to make Memorial Day.”

Three weeks later, the Sox entered Monday night's game against the Rangers 11 games under (31-42) and they actually picked up a half game on the first-place Twins.

In his latest press briefing, Hahn was asked for his thoughts on an underachieving White Sox team that continues to spin its wheels.

“The goals have always been higher than just making the playoffs,” the GM said. “I will say that given our performance so far, our only way in is through winning the division, which based on the performance relative to the rest of the divisions this year, everything's been a little bit down, which makes that more attainable than a wild-card spot.

“If we're able to turn this around and get ourselves in a position to win this division, we are obviously going to be playing pretty (darn) good baseball for the final two, three months of the season, which would give us reason to believe that the postseason performance could be better.

“Making the playoffs is important. But the goals are loftier than that. And when we judge ultimately what happens as we get much closer to August 1 than we are now, how we project our ability to not only win the division but to make an impact in October is going to factor in.”

Aug. 1 is the trade deadline, and the White Sox are likely going to be sellers if they keep hovering at 11 games under .500.

There is still time to turn it around, but the calendar is becoming a factor.

The Sox's roster is playoff caliber on paper, but a group that features Luis Robert Jr., Dylan Cease, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Lucas Giolito, Liam Hendriks, Andrew Benintendi and Lance Lynn is failing for the second straight season.

Why is that?

“I don't have the answer for that, in all candor,” Hahn said. “It's not for lack of individual confidence. It's not for lack of support from the staff. It's not from lack of communication about expectations and what we feel guys are capable of doing. It's been, again, we have been digging ourselves out of a hole for a while now and it's a little tough to have that edge when you are swimming upstream.

“Guys want to start showing that tonight, despite their record. That's great. That confidence served us well for an extended period and it would be good to get that back.”

There has been some national speculation that first-year manager Pedro Grifol is not going to be back for a second season in the White Sox's dugout if things don't turn around.

That “bleeped” off Hahn.

“You guys who are here day in and day out have heard me say before, that this under performance that we've had so far, or any of the issues we've had thus far this season, is not on Pedro and the coaching staff,” Hahn said. “I don't think we could have been more clear about that. I've been nothing but supportive, all of us since the hire was made. There's no there there in any of this reporting or speculation as the case may be.”

Grifol doesn't deserve to take the fall for a Sox team that can be very hard on the eyes. The rookie manager still believes his players will rise up and make a move in the weak AL Central.

“I think everyone in that clubhouse thinks this division is up for the taking,” Grifol said. “We're extremely optimistic this thing will click for us. We've played a lot of close games, a lot of leverage games. where a hit or walk here or there and we're three or four games better. Everybody in that clubhouse is optimistic that we're going to put this together and we're in striking distance of where we want to be.

“Should we be better? Probably, but we're not. This is where we are. We can only look at where we're at, continue to work and play baseball the way we feel like we can.”