Rick Hahn

Rick Hahn

• School Northwestern University, Harvard University, University of Michigan
• High School New Trier High School

• Born circa 1971

Biographical Information

Rick Hahn has been General Manager of the Chicago White Sox since 2012, when he succeeded Kenny Williams. He had previously been Williams' assistant GM for several years. Hahn had worked as an agent for two years and later was involved in negotiations from the other side as assistant GM, including deals with John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Paul Konerko, Jake Peavy and Alexei Ramirez. He went to Harvard Law School.

His first year as GM was difficult, as in 2013, the White Sox finished last in the AL Central and were in obvious need of rebuilding. he did just that by being active on the free agent market, his prize catch being Cuban defector 1B Jose Abreu who became the American League Rookie of the Year in 2014, then added P Jeff Samardzija, OF Melky Cabrera and 1B Adam LaRoche the following off-season. He got rid of a number of established veterans, with Alex Rios, Jake Peavy, Gordon Beckham and Adam Dunn all being traded away, while Paul Konerko retired. In their place, he acquired youngsters such as CF Adam Eaton, RF Avisail Garcia and 3B Conor Gillaspie. Heading into 2015, the main holdovers from when were P Chris Sale, the team's young ace, C Tyler Flowers and SS Alexei Ramirez. However, the moves failed to re-energize the team, and Hahn then launched a complete rebuild.

The trades of Sale, OF Adam Eaton and P Jose Quintana in 2017 all brought in some significant prospects, although they did not really contribute for a couple of seasons. In 2019 however, even though the Sox were only 72-89, they finally appeared to be on the brink of better days as Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Eloy Jimenez, brought in in those three trades, all had breakthrough seasons. The White Sox made the postseason in both the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and in 2021, but lost their first postseason series both years. Interestingly, he fired manager Rick Renteria after the successful 2020 season, due to disagreements over player usage, and brought in team legend Tony LaRussa out of retirement to manage the team. This worked the first year, but in 2022, the by-then 77-year-old skipper began to show signs that he was no longer in touch with the modern game, before health issues forced him to step down on August 30th. Miguel Cairo stepped in as interim manager for the final month and seemed the logical person to succeed LaRussa, but Hahn went outside the organization to hire Pedro Grifol as the manager for 2023. The Sox had a very tough season that year, and after a massive sale of experienced pitchers at the trading deadline, Hahn and his mentor Kenny Williams, an Executive Vice-President for the team snce he had stepped down as GM in 2012, paid the price on August 22nd when they were both dismissed in one fell swoop.

Preceded by Kenny Williams

Chicago White Sox General Manager 2012-2023

Succeeded by Chris Getz

Source: 2013 White Sox Media Guide

Further Reading

• Phil Rogers: "Hahn's rapid renovation has White Sox in strong location: Versatile speedster Bonifacio latest addition to South Siders' extreme makeover", mlb.com, January 5, 2015. [1]