Winter Meetings interview with Rick Hahn

RICK HAHN: It’s never easy to trade a pitcher the caliber of Chris Sale, a player that our amateur scouting staff identified early on, prior to 2010 draft, and our player development people along with Major League staff helped maximize his high, high level of talent at the Big League level. As I talked with Chris this afternoon to inform him of the trade, pass along our great gratitude as an organization for everything he did in our uniform and obviously wished him well, it was not an easy phone call to make, but one, quite frankly, based upon the return that we were able to procure in this trade was one that we were extremely excited about making. We have made no secret heading into the off-season our goal is to put ourselves in the best position to contend for an extended period of time for multiple championships. Given where we were as an organization entering this off-season, we knew we were going to have to make some painful decisions. But if we had the opportunity to acquire some high-impact talent that would be around for a number of years, it was time to start that process. So today was the first step in what will very likely be an extended process but one that we feel, if we continue to acquire similar-type players with the upsides of the individuals that we acquired today, will be for the extended long-term benefit of the organization. With that, questions.Q. With the interest you had from various teams besides Boston and the talent packages you were being offered, how tough was this decision to make, where to pull the final move on it, and how much did you go back and forth with your Boston people before deciding on the Boston fit?RICK HAHN: There was extensive debate. Obviously we took this decision quite serious, and there were a number of talented players involved not just in the Red Sox package but in other packages that we were debating, and those conversations went up to late this morning until we decided the Red Sox deal was the one that made the most sense for us, based on the players that were coming back.Q. How was the last, maybe, from 6:00 on last night, what was it like in the room until this morning?RICK HAHN: Stuffy. Didn’t smell great. (Chuckles.) There was a great level of excitement since we got here about the caliber of players that we were likely to receive back. We view Moncada as a premium position player, a guy who is going to play up the middle for us, be an impact offensively and defensively for us for a long time. And Kopech, we project him out as a front end of the rotation starter, the kind of guy that’s pretty rare in terms of peers throughout Minor League Baseball right now. Basabe, another switch-hitting up-the-middle talent plus defender in center fielder who can run. And then Diaz, a plus-plus arm who has some secondary offerings to back it up. These are the type of impact players that we need to continue to acquire and build up to get our system to the point where we are able to have that extended run of success, and there were similar-type players being offered from other clubs, and there was a level of excitement in that room as we debated which was the best path for us. And although there were a few minutes along the way where you take time to realize the caliber of player that you’re giving up in Chris and, as I said, someone who’s success is a tribute not only to his great ability but our amateur scouts and player development and Major League coaches and one of our own. In the end we knew this was something we had to do for the benefit of the club.Q. Does this in your mind, in your people’s minds, open up the floodgates for the possibilities of numerous other players possibly being dealt over the next couple days here and in the future?RICK HAHN: I don’t know if it necessarily leads to a quickening of our pace. We’ve had conversations leading up to these meetings as well since we’ve gotten here on a number of different fronts, and we’re extremely open-minded on ways to continue the process that we started today. It’s conceivable more comes together while we’re here, or it may take a few more weeks on certain fronts and conceivably into the season as well. We don’t view this as a quick fix; this is something that we’re going to do with diligence and with the proper patience in order to maximize our returns.Q. Rick, you’ve been making a lot of moves the last couple years the other direction, going for it, signing free agents, making trades, how difficult is it to reset and what finally convinced you now is the right time?RICK HAHN: It was an organizational decision, something that Jerry Reinsdorf and Kenny Williams and I and others, Buddy Bell, and Jeremy Haber in the front office have been discussing for a long time. It doesn’t — this path, you’re right, doesn’t fit with how we have acted over the last several years. We’ve been in a more of a “win now and patch and play” type of situation. We feel the same frustration that the White Sox fans have felt over the last few years which those plans may look good on paper or entering Spring Training make everybody feel optimistic haven’t played out the way everybody inside and outside of the organization anticipated. That extended period of frustration and not being able to see a path in order to rectify that based upon where we were in terms of our resources as an organization led to very serious conversations over not just the last …

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