As we are now about a day removed from the firing of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, we can get over the initial shock of the move and begin to look back on what he did with the team. He was the GM of the team from 2000-2012 before he was promoted up the ladder in the front office in favor of Rick Hahn.
Now we can judge Williams for a lot of different moves or lack thereof, but he was the general manager when the Sox won the World Series, so we have to give him credit for that. He also released a heartfelt statement yesterday when he was relieved of his duties, which you can read here. Regardless of the potential animosity some hold towards him and the front office, he seemed like a gennuinely good guy and his statement reflected that. As we reminisce, let us take a look at his general manager career with the Whtie Sox…
The Record
Since he took over in 2000 the Sox made the playoffs two times. In 2005 and 2008. The one encouraging statistic that he has is the fact they never finished in last place while he was the GM. While that is a low bar, most of his teams finished in third place or higher.
He did have a lot of underperforming teams, especially considering he won the World Series one year and then didn’t make the playoffs until a few years later.
Overall he had a record of 929-854, which is better than Rick’s record with the Sox. Unfortunately, this did not translate to much playoff success, which is the ultimate test for a GM.
He would be replaced by Hahn in the offseason of 2012 and would oversee only two more playoff wins and a lot of underachieving. How much say he had in the team construction and moves remains to be seen, but he definitely had a say and that would ultimately lead to his firing just a day ago.
His stand-alone record as a GM isn’t horrible and you wonder how much was affected by Jerry, but he didn’t win enough or compete enough to keep his job at the end of the day, as this was long overdue.
Major Moves
Kenny had some very notable moves, including bringing Jim Thome over in a trade, but one move might stick with him as he departs, as it was rumored he was the one to close the Jake Burger deal with the Marlins.
While the jury is still out on this trade as we must wait for Jake Eder to develop in the minors, it doesn’t look great right now, as Jake Burger has mashed for the Marlins.
But, he should be remembered for more than that. He also had some other big moves such as bringing in Jermaine Dye, Tadahito Iguchi, and AJ, which catapulted the Sox into the World Series, and that should be considered a huge part of his legacy, as a World Series should not be ignored.
His biggest problem as a GM was his drafting. He had a poor track record with first-round picks and his only major one turned out to be Chris Sale. You can’t go 1/12 in first-round picks and expect to be retained. That is what ultimately did him in, as he couldn’t produce major-league talent through the minors.
Most of his major league moves and trades were pretty good and we should remember the good stuff with Kenny as he brought the White Sox their first World Series in a very long time. Regardless of what occurred after that, we must give him props for the best postseason team of all time.
I wish him the best of luck in whatever he chooses to do next. Thanks for 2005 Kenny.
