(670 The Score) As the White Sox have fallen on hard times in recent years, they've lamented their trade of star-to-be Fernando Tatis Jr. to the Padres in 2016.
The White Sox traded Tatis and pitcher Erik Johnson to acquire veteran right-hander James Shields in the middle of the 2016 season. At the time, Tatis was a 17-year-old prospect who wasn't highly regarded. He’s now a 26-year-old two-time All-Star who’s considered one of the game’s top players and is in the National League MVP conversation.
Former White Sox general manager Rick Hahn – who was fired from his role in August 2023 – joined MLB Network over the weekend and offered additional context to the trade of Tatis. In particular, he shared that the Padres initially didn’t covet Tatis in the trade.
“What fool would trade him,” Hahn said with a wry smile. “Here’s the thing about Tatis. Obviously, horrible trade. Judged at the time when we made the deal, I like to point to the success of our international scouting department. Tatis was a $600,000, maybe $800,000 sign, not top-tier bonus guy. Had not played, he was in extended (spring training) with us. We traded him several months, less than a year after we had signed him. And there were a few people in player development who viewed him as a lottery ticket so to speak – tremendous upside and this guy could come back to bite you if you make the trade. I had that knowledge.
“San Diego actually asked for Erik Johnson, who was part of the trade, right-handed pitcher, as well as another arm initially. And we were reluctant to include two arms. The second arm never went on to anything. Initially, it was a different arm (instead of Tatis), and we pushed back and ended up shuffling and pivoting in the end. They asked for Tatis, which they deserve a ton of credit for identifying this guy out of complex ball as someone they wanted.
“At the time, it was 2016, we were 23-10 coming out of the gates. We knew we weren’t as good as 23-10. Mat Latos was doing some things with smoke and mirrors that season. John Danks was trying to fight his way back from injury and losing that battle. And we had a manager in Robin (Ventura) who kind of knew that if we don’t win this year, he might not want to be around too much longer on his own volition.
“There was a lot pointing towards, 'Let’s push in to make this work and win now.' And obviously, I regret the trade. Obviously, it did not work out the way we hoped, because we ended up not winning and that was ultimately the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of finally getting us to rebuild. But I understand, and I take lessons with me going forward.”
The White Sox ended up going 78-84 in 2016 and finishing 16.5 games of first place in the AL Central.
The White Sox are 18-41 this season after enduring a 41-121 campaign in 2024 in which they set an MLB record for the most losses in a single season in the modern era.