CHICAGO — It sounds like he’s getting close to shifting the focus to next season, but White Sox general manager Rick Hahn isn’t ready to throw in the towel on this season just yet.
Despite the White Sox being 6 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Angels for the second wild-card spot in the American League, Hahn is clinging to a sliver of hope in the remaining 52 games.
“Until there is an ‘X’ next to our name (in the standings), we’ll approach this like there is a shot,” he said, prior to the White Sox’s 8-2 win to start a series Monday against the Angels at U.S. Cellular Field. “It doesn’t really change how 25 guys in (the clubhouse) and the coaching staff goes about their business. Their focus will remain on trying to win that night’s ballgame. As for us in the front office, obviously we have to be cognizant of where we sit in the standings and how each loss makes that road to the playoffs a little more difficult to travel down. So, we’re aware of the situation and we’re aware of what potentially needs to be done in the coming weeks, but for me in that clubhouse, the focus has to be on winning that night’s ballgame.”
Hahn, who stood pat at the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline, is taking a similar tact to potential trades that require the waivers process. If he doesn’t feel the trade improves the White Sox in the long and short term, he’s not going to do it.
“We aren’t to the point yet where we’re necessarily looking strictly at the future,” Hahn said. “As we get deeper into August and if things don’t improve, that is something we’ll have to take seriously, but at this point we’re still having the same approach of looking for long-term fits that could help this year and beyond.”
As for looking back at the trade deadline with regret for not making any trades, Hahn has no interest in going down that path. Many thought he would trade pending free agent right-hander Jeff Samardzija, who might have fetched a nice haul in prospects, but that’s ancient history to Hahn now.
“I don’t think it’s real healthy to do that,” he said. “The best way to look at things is to make as good a decision as you can at the time, based on the information you have at that time. And obviously we were real comfortable with the path we decided to go down on the 31st or leading up to the 31st. If we’re presented with another opportunity to potentially make the team better or start looking at the future, we’ll make that decision based on the information available at that time.”
Hahn also said he’s not under a directive from the White Sox’s upper management to attempt a salary purge through the waivers process. For now, they’re still buying into this season until they see that ‘X’ in the standings.
They came into this series on the heels of being swept at the Kansas City Royals and just 2-8 in their previous 10 games, but the memory of a seven-game winning streak at the tail end of July is still fresh.
“Obviously the up-and-down nature (of this season) has been frustrating,” Hahn said. “The positive news is we do have a lot of schedule left and are playing a lot of the teams we are chasing, so we still have an opportunity here. It’s important for us to shake off as quickly as we can these tough one-run losses and get going (now).”