Rick Hahn needs to find his Steve McMichael

This week our friends at SoxMachine opened up their Off-Season Plan Project, where White Sox fans are asked to create a plan to build the 2021 White Sox. Us fans are asked to make decisions on contract tenders for arbitration eligible players, trades, free agent acquisitions and even contract extensions should we choose. It’s a chance to try your hand at the GM’s job for the off-season. We even had Josh Nelson from SoxMachine on the podcast to discuss the plans that we put together ourselves.

LINK TO BEEFLOAF PLAN

LINK TO 108 PODCAST WITH JOSH NELSON

Although the GM job is very tough, one area where pretty much any of you reading this could do a better job than Hahn has over his tenure as GM is with low end free agent acquisitions. Let’s say free agents in the below $5M AAV section of the ledger. I’M ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS!! Take a look at this article by Jim Margalus for the gory accounting of Hahn’s free agent acquisitions. I mean, you couldn’t do this bad if you were pulling a fucking Rachel Phelps….you gotta feel for this guy. Truthfully, he’s had only the one success, in everyone’s favorite personal catcher, James McCann (xoxoxo, we’ll miss you James!).

Now, I have in the recent past compared Hahn to Ted Phillips of the Bears and what I think Hahn really needs in this realm is to find his Steve McMichael….

That’s right. STEVE MCMICHAEL!! In the lexicon of “BEST” Chicago free agents EVER, he’s almost never mentioned, but Mongo (as he was affectionately called by his teammates) was in fact a free agent pick up. A key member of the best Bears teams of our lifetime, a 2 time pro-bowl selection and a 2 time NFL first team all-pro, logging 95 career sacks, he just never gets mentioned for some reason. Maybe it is because he didn’t come here like the Hossa’s, Rodman’s and Lester’s of the world. Nope. You see in 1980, Mongo came out of the University of Texas, a big time collegiate program and was selected in the 3rd round by the Patriots and after barely using him in his rookie season, the Patriots just cut him loose (possibly #108ing related).

The Bears decided to scoop him up before the start of the 1981 season and the rest is history. He ended up a key cog in a legendary defense and a team that went on to win 5 straight NFC Central titles and a Super Bowl. This is the type of low end free agent that teams who hope to have SUSTAINED SUCCESS must hit. Maybe this will be Hahn’s year to find a Steve McMichael, he sure as fuck is due.

-BeefLoaf