Since being promoted to general manager in October of 2012, Rick Hahn has 20 trades to his credit.
During his four years on the job, Hahn has been considered a savvy trader, someone who has been able to craft out good deals despite being limited by the budget constraints of his owner.
But just how well have those 20 trades worked out? Some you’ll remember, some will make you say “oh yeah, I forgot about that,” and others are simply shrug-inducing.
I think that’s probably the case with most general managers, but with only a little more than a week remaining until the trade deadline and a lot of uncertainty about what, exactly, the White Sox would do, I thought it’d be a fun exercise to look back at these 20 trades, what went into the deal, how those players have fared and, quite simply, whether it was a good trade or not.
November 7, 2012
White Sox trade minor leaguer Brandon Kloess to San Diego Padres for Blake Tekotte
You might remember Blake Tekotte for the 36 plate appearances he say with the 2013 White Sox. Who am I kidding, you definitely don’t remember that. At least you shouldn’t remember that.
To get Tekotte, Hahn sent San Diego minor-league pitcher, a 26 year old who made it all the way to Triple-A after the White Sox signed him out of the Frontier League in 2009. He spent another two years in the Padres’ organization, never reaching the majors.
Was this a good trade? Meh
February 22, 2013
White Sox trade minor leaguer Jeff Soptic to San Francisco Giants for Conor Gillaspie
Now we’re talking!
Right before Spring Training, Hahn made an under-the-radar move to get former first-round pick Conor Gillaspie from the Giants. Gillaspie moved quickly through San Francisco’s system after being picked in 2008, getting seven plate appearances in the fall after he was drafted, but only saw 41 more plate appearances with the team in the four years that followed before the Sox scooped him up for Soptic.
Gillaspie was never anything close to a game-changing talent, but the 2014 season he put up — .282/.336/.416 with a 115 OPS+ in 506 plate appearances — is far more than anyone could have hoped considering the player they sent out, Soptic, has yet to see any action above High-A in the Giants’ system.
Was this a good trade? Why yes, yes it was!
July 12, 2013
White Sox trade Matt Thornton to Boston Red Sox for Brandon Jacobs
Thornton was a valuable reliever for the White Sox for the better part of seven seasons, but in 2013 with the White Sox well out of contention and Thornton 35 years old and an impending free agent, he was an obvious candidate to sell.
In Brandon Jacobs, the White Sox acquired a prospect who was once rated as high as No. 46 on BP’s Top 101 (pre-2012), and was a 22 year old who was recently promoted to Double-A in Boston’s system. Jacobs wound up spending only about four months in the White Sox system, however, as he went to Arizona in another trade (more on that later).
Jacobs never amounted to anything and is no longer in affiliated ball, but for someone in Thornton’s position (old reliever set to become a free agent), getting a lottery ticket is fine.
Was this a good trade? It made sense, despite the return not being anything special.
July 29, 2013
White Sox trade Jesse Crain to Tampa Bay in conditional deal (later received Sean Bierman)
Jesse Crain was an All-Star in 2013 after giving up just three earned runs in 36.2 innings during the first half of the season. It’s kind of hard to believe, but Crain never threw another pitch at the major league level after being named an All-Star. He was actually on the DL before the game was played.
The deal that sent Crain to Tampa was a conditional deal where the player the White Sox received would be based on how much and/or well Crain pitched with Tampa. Of course, he never threw a pitch with the Rays — like Thornton, he was also an impending free agent — and so the player the White Sox got back was Sean Bierman, who threw all of 14 innings between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem before the White Sox let him go.
Was this a good trade? It made sense, despite the return not being anything special.
July 30, 2013
White Sox trade Jake Peavy to Boston Red Sox, receive Avisail Garcia from Detroit Tigers, Cleulius Rondon, J.B. Wendelken and Frankie Montas from Boston. Jose Iglesias was sent from Boston to Detroit
The big sell trade of the 2013 season was this one, and it’s been discussed at length given the continuous uselessness of Garcia.
The idea behind this trade was supposedly that Boston wanted Peavy and were offering Iglesias in return. The White Sox weren’t interested in Iglesias, but did like Garcia so the teams got Detroit involved. The rest is history.
Garcia proving to have no discernible major league skills makes this a bad trade, and while Iglesias doesn’t exactly set the world on fire with his bat, it seems the White Sox would’ve been better served just going with Iglesias instead of getting Detroit involved.
The prospects involved does make this slightly more tolerable, however, as Montas ended up turning into a legit pitching prospect who went to the Dodgers in the deal that netted the Sox Todd Frazier; and Wendelken, while hardly a top level prospect, was in the deal that brought Brett Lawrie to Chicago.
Still, that doesn’t do enough to justify completely whiffing on Garcia.
Was this a good trade? It certainly wasn’t great!
August 9, 2013
White Sox trade Alex Rios to Texas Rangers for Leury Garcia
The thing about this trade that irked me at the time and still irks me today is that Alex Rios was a solid player tied to a less-than-desirable contract. He was hitting .277/.328/.421 at the time of the trade, and was due the remaining portion of his $13 million for 2014, plus whatever was left of his $12.5 million 2013 contract.
Instead of being willing to eat some of that cash in order to get a legitimate major league prospect, they ate a measly $1 million and Rios brought them Leury Garcia, who never projected to hit much in the majors, and hasn’t.
Was this a good trade? It was a frustrating trade, at the very least.
December 10, 2013
White Sox trade Hector Santiago to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Brandon Jacobs to Arizona Diamondbacks, receive Adam Eaton from Arizona; Los Angeles sends Mark Trumbo and A.J. Schugel to Arizona; Arizona sends Tyler Skaggs to Los Angeles
Let’s jump right to the end here. The White Sox acquired a bonafide top-of-the-order hitter, excellent defensive right fielder and borderline (maybe should’ve been) All-Star in exchange for a solid but not outstanding starting pitcher.
Hector Santiago has been better than I expected — and probably better than most would’ve thought after he was a 30th round draft pick in 2006 —and even made the All-Star team a year ago. His control issues remain, but he’s a solid mid-rotation starter the Angels should be happy to have.
But Eaton has been great, and this was probably the best trade of Hahn’s tenure.
Was this a good trade? I mean, did you read the last three paragraphs?
June 14, 2014
White Sox trade Jake Sanchez to Oakland Athletics for Michael Taylor
Jake Sanchez is 26 years old and now in Double-A for the Athletics. Michael Taylor peaked at No. 20 on Baseball Prospectus’ Top 101 prospects before the 2010 season, and hit .167/.254/.216 in 114 career major league plate appearances before retiring following the 2014 season.
This was a trade that is not worth remembering.
Was this a good trade? Meh
August 21-31, 2014
White Sox trade Gordon Beckham to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Yency Almonte
White Sox trade Alejandro de Aza to Baltimore Orioles for Mark Blackmar and Miguel Chalas
White Sox trade Adam Dunn to Oakland Athletics for Nolan Sanburn
I’m lumping these three together because there were all trades, just 10 days apart, that signaled the same thing — Hahn getting a handful of lotto tickets for three players who weren’t going to be part of the team’s future.
Were these good trade? They were necessary trades.
December 9, 2014
White Sox trade Marcus Semien, Josh Phegley and Chris Bassitt to Oakland Athletics for Jeff Samardzija and Michael Ynoa
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll first remove the auxiliary parts of the trade — Phegley, Bassitt and Ynoa — from this deal as they are, while OK pieces in one way or another, not relevant to how this worked out for both teams.
Nope, this trade boils down to Jeff Samardzija for Marcus Semien.
In hindsight, this trade worked out terribly for the White Sox. Samardzija was one of the worst qualified pitchers in the American League during his lone season in Chicago, and Semien has turned into a legitimate power threat while playing a premium defensive position (albeit not extremely well) in a cavernous ballpark.
Semien is flawed, but the White Sox could use him. With Semien, maybe the White Sox don’t make the Todd Frazier trade and still have Trayce Thompson available in the outfield. Maybe they’d still want to make that trade — Frazier has been a great addition! — and they’d put him at second base and not trade for Lawrie.
Maybe Semien doesn’t develop into a 20-plus homer player. Maybe Thompson isn’t as good as he’s been for the Dodgers.
There are a lot of maybes, but all we can react to is what happened, and Semien has been really good, and Samardzija was a disaster for a year before turning into a draft pick that turned into Zack Burdi.
The trade made sense at the time, and there was very little concern that the three players the White Sox gave away would develop into pieces more valuable than what the Sox were getting in Samardzija.
Yet, here we are, watching Semien mash dingers in Oakland while the pitcher who was supposed to be the ace next to Chris Sale A) isn’t an ace and B) isn’t next to Chris Sale anymore.
Was this a good trade? It was the worst trade.
December 11, 2014
White Sox trade Andre Rienzo to Miami Marlins for Dan Jennings
Jennings is a useful but not overwhelmingly impressive arm to have in the bullpen. His 1.99 ERA this season has masked a 1.24 K/BB and, in fact, he has a 1.60 K/BB since coming to Chicago after posting two straight seasons in Miami above 2.0.
Still, Jennings is fine and Rienzo has been largely useless, posting a 5.95 ERA in just 19.2 innings at the major league level since joining the Marlins.
Was this a good trade? It was fine.
May 23, 2015
White Sox trade Eric Surkamp to Los Angeles Dodgers for Blake Smith
Surkamp never showed a whiff of potential during his time in the White Sox system, and somehow ascended to the major leagues with Oakland this year, making nine(!) starts and posting a 6.98 ERA. Smith is 28 years old and pitching in relief for Triple-A Charlotte.
Was this a good trade? Meh.
November 24, 2015
White Sox trade Yency Almonte to Colorado Rockies for Tommy Kahnle
Another trade that made sense on the surface despite it not amounting to much. Almonte, a semi-intriguing arm who the White Sox got in the Gordon Beckham trade, turned into a guy in Kahnle who they had hoped would provide bullpen depth. He’s only thrown 6.1 inning with the White Sox this season, but hasn’t provided much.
Was this a good trade? Meh.
December 9, 2015
White Sox trade J.B. Wendelken and Zack Erwin to Oakland Athletics for Brett Lawrie
As we get closer to present day we get to trades that are more prevalent in our minds. But it’s worth remembering that Lawrie at second base has plugged a hole in the White Sox infield that has been there since Ray Durham left. He’s 26 years old, not a free agent until 2018, and only cost an organizational arm and fourth-round pick who’s not lighting the world on fire at High-A.
Was this a good trade? It has been very good so far.
December 16, 2015
White Sox trade Trayce Thompson, Micah Johnson and Frankie Montas to Los Angeles Dodgers; receive Todd Frazier from Cincinnati Reds; Dodgers send Brandon Dixon, Jose Peraza and Scott Schebler to Reds
Trayce Thompson has been better than most people expected, but let’s not kid ourselves, this is the kind of trade you make every time you get the opportunity.
I mentioned earlier that Lawrie plugged a hole in the White Sox infield that had been glaring since Ray Durham left. Similarly, Todd Frazier has filled a gap at third base that had been there since the departure of Joe Crede.
The White Sox failings this seasons are not Frazier’s fault. The fact that Thompson would be a welcome addition to the outfield is not the fault of this trade. The fact that the White Sox traded away outfield depth and failed to sign a meaningful outfield free agent is what caused that issue, and that’s more related to the White Sox financial shortcomings than Hahn’s trade acumen.
Was this a good trade? It was.
May 12, 2016
White Sox trade Matt Ball to Texas Rangers for Anthony Ranaudo
Nothing to see here, move along.
Was this a good trade? Meh.
June 4, 2016
White Sox trade Erik Johnson and Fernando Tatis Jr. to San Diego Padres for James Shields
Was this a good trade? Too early to tell, but the intentions were good.
For those scoring at home, that’s four trades that were very good, one trade that was very bad, five mehs, a handful more that made sense despite not netting anything noteworthy, and one too early to tell.
Hahn’s job has been under more scrutiny lately than at any other time during his four years as GM, and justifiably so. The lack of spending and moribund farm system fall under his watch, and it’s impossible to tell how much the lack of improvement the team has shown is thanks to poor choices by him, a lack of financial commitment from Jerry Reinsdorf, or somewhere in between.
Regardless, Hahn’s trading his proven crafty, and while several haven’t amounted to much, if there’s one area he should be trusted, it’s probably this one.
Lead Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
There’s little doubt that Hahn is going to be running this rebuild. The short answer for this is to put together a team capable of hitting 200+ homers and factoring in only Anderson and Collins as part of those teams. Everyone has to go. Sale, Quintana, Eaton, Abreu, Frazier, Lawrie, Cabrera, Robertson, Jones, and Jennings.