CHICAGO -- Why haven't the White Sox made more trades since the expressed start of their rebuild, which featured major deals sending Chris Sale to Boston and Adam Eaton to Washington?
It's a fair question, according to White Sox general manager Rick Hahn. It's one the team's front office has asked itself in regard to maybe its aims or aspirations being too high in certain realms. But Hahn takes solace in leaving no good deal or appropriate return on the table in what certainly isn't an exact science.
"You have to align with the right club, with the right fit, with the right need, with the financial wherewithal on their end to make it work, as well as the aggressiveness on their end," Hahn told MLB.com on Thursday. "You certainly saw Boston, Washington realizing where they were and what these players meant to their championship aspirations, and [they] were willing to be aggressive to force the issue and get to the point where essentially it was impossible for us to say no.
"This needs to be a club with the wealth of prospects we feel makes sense to make things work on our end as an adequate return. It takes time sometimes. Just because over the course of one snapshot in this process, the offseason, we only did the two major deals, it doesn't mean the next opportunity, around the [non-waiver Trade] Deadline, couldn't potentially be more."
In reference to the upcoming Trade Deadline, Hahn pointed out there's no guarantee the team will make any deals. Then again, the White Sox could make five behind the previous Sale and Eaton moves.
"It depends how the market reacts and the value of our players at the time and when we feel it's the most opportune moment to maximize any return," Hahn said. "We aren't going to do anything at the Deadline to point back and say, 'Look what we did.'
"We are, I would say in the front office, as eager as anybody within the White Sox nation to continue to progress and build upon what we have already done. We can't force it to satiate our desires or expectations that this thing moves more quickly."
Solid returns came in for Sale and Eaton, as should be the case for two elite players. Hahn is happy with the organization's 2016 MLB Draft class and is hoping for another strong haul in 2017, not to mention "working on some international elements that we hope to further this process."
If any trade opportunities present themselves before the Deadline, the White Sox will be open to talking with all 29 other clubs. That includes the crosstown Cubs, a potential move Hahn knows won't be turned down by chairman Jerry Reinsdorf even if it helps the Cubs win another title -- as long as it's a win-win for the White Sox with a return moving them closer to their own championship endgame.
"Jerry has been unequivocally clear to me, and I expect anyone who has asked him the question directly or spent the time to understand his thought process at this point, that his No. 1 goal is to get us back in the position to win a championship as quickly as possible," Hahn said. "If that path takes us through doing a deal with the Cubs, he'll be completely on board."