At a Loss for Words

White Sox GM Rick Hahn provided his customary spin yesterday, but he couldn’t hide from the media storm created by the team’s signing of Mike Clevinger, who looks destined to give a whole new meaning to “spitter.” If I read LaMond Pope correctly in today’s Tribune, Hahn tried to sell his ignorance of the domestic abuse allegations against Clevinger as proof of an MLB policy at work. According to Hahn, “There was no way for us to be aware of this incident without someone being in violation of that policy [that investigations be confidential], and no one was, which again is part of the strength of the policy and how it operates effectively.” In other words, the Sox screwed up because nobody broke a policy rule to tip them off about Clevinger. What, Hahn didn’t want to use the dog eating his homework as an excuse? It works just as well. What the latest Sox SNAFU (think David Wells, Jeff Keppinger, Billy Koch, Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, Tony LaRussa) shows is this—the White Sox would rather spend $12 million on a pitcher they knew nothing about rather than sign Carlos Rodon, whom they knew everything about. Dare I say they also preferred spending $12 million on Clevinger rather than making that money part of an extension offer to either Dylan Cease or Lucas Giolito? So went day one of camp. What could possibly go wrong on day two?