Hahn: Performance will dictate timing of moves

CHICAGO -- General manager Rick Hahn talked about his frustration Wednesday, an organization-wide frustration coming from this disappointing White Sox season that reached a low point with their 0-5 road trip.

But he would not attach a date to any particular time that he deems as a tipping point for wholesale change.

"Do we have thoughts on potential moves to try to not only reinvigorate the 2015 club but also put us in a better position to contend going forward? Absolutely," Hahn said before his club dropped a sixth straight with a 3-2 loss to the Pirates. "In terms of timing or the nature of those moves, it's certainly not anything we are going to lay out in advance.

"There's not a magic number. It's about a combination of can we reasonably expect to get back in this thing, based on where we are from a personnel standpoint, where we are from a health standpoint, remaining schedule, how our opponents look? It's not once we get to X number of games back on this date, we're done.

"That's part of the likelihood of being able to get back into the race, but it's more than just a number," Hahn said. "It's about what you're seeing with your eyes in terms of player performance and likelihood of them being able to achieve more, or is this the level you're going to get?"

The season's 60-game mark had been pointed to previously by Hahn as a good marker. The White Sox (28-36) stand four games past that point and feature an offense that doesn't look capable of contributing to a sustained playoff run.

Optimism still exists in Hahn's mind based on veteran players who are underachieving eventually living up to past success. But as Hahn pointed out Wednesday, at some point, you have to look away from the back of the baseball cards and see the results on the field.

"This team has shown itself to be underachieving offensively," Hahn said. "So now you need to decide is it reasonable to expect them to get better based on the track records, or is there some reason this isn't going to click from an offensive standpoint, which is going to make it that much more difficult going forward? We just haven't had guys perform at the level that one, they're capable of, and two, more importantly, that we've seen out of them in years past.

"It's getting to the point where it's not early anymore. There is still ample season left. We've still seen numerous teams over a number of years who have gone on tremendous second-half runs, who have gone, even starting in August, to put themselves in a position to go deep into the postseason.

"You can't bank on that though," Hahn said. "As much as we like to look at guys' track records and believe it's going to get better, we're getting to the point where these series or games we're giving away, we're going to have to make up more quickly than just saying it's going to happen out in the future."