Like I Said

Like I said, the White Sox aren’t going to win their division. They showed why, yet again, last night in losing to the visiting Guardians, 10-7 in eleven innings. For better and worse, the game bore the handiwork of general manager Rick Hahn. If only every deal Hahn has made were of the caliber of Joe Quintana for Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, this would be a whole different conversation. Last night, Eloy hit when it counted, driving in the tying run in the sixth inning, and Cease pitched the same way, giving up one run over six innings. Alas, most Hahn moves have been a good two or three or a hundred notches below Jimenez/Cease. The Sox scored three runs in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. Jimmy Lambert relieved Cease to start the seventh and promptly walked the only two hitters he faced on twelve pitches. Aaron Bummer relieved Lambert, which is to say things got interesting and the Sox were lucky to be in a tie game going into extra innings. If Liam Hendriks counts in Hahn’s column of good acquisitions (he pitched a scoreless ninth), Kendal Graveman belongs elsewhere. He gave up two runs that his teammates were somehow able to match in the bottom of the frame. Which brings us to Jake Diekman, the only pitcher Hahn thought to acquire before the trade deadline. Diekman absolutely stunk and was charged with five runs on three hits, a walk and two wild pitches. Wait, there’s more. Back in 2019, Hahn signed Grandal to a questionable four-year deal for $73 million. In three-plus seasons, Grandal has never hit above .240 or driven in more than sixty-two runs. This year, he’s batting .201 with twenty-six RBIs. Though he’s only played in eighty-nine games on account of injury, Grandal is tied for the most passed balls (eight) in all of baseball. A brick backstop would have a higher WAR. With the Guardians ahead by five runs, Grandal the purported master of bat control came in to pinch hit only to strikeout on a full count, swinging at a ball in his eyes. A.J. Pollock, in one of his two-game stretches of looking all-world, then hit a two-run homer. With Grandal on base and Bryan Shaw, Cleveland’s version of Diekman, pitching, it would’ve been a 10-8 game, making Seby Zavala’s double all the more interesting. In reality, the score was 10-7, with two outs and Zavala on second. And up comes the piece de resistance in the series of roster moves made by Rick Hahn. That’s right, Leury Garcia, he of the three-year $16.5 million re-signing, stepped to the plate with the season on the line. As might be expected, Garcia popped out to short. End of game, end of season, barring a miracle. Age appears to have caught up with Tony La Russa; the odds of his returning to manage next year lie somewhere between slim and none. But can Hahn be trusted to reshape a roster he bears full responsibility for putting together in the first place? Not from where I stand.