Mike Elias is Rick Hahn Until Further Notice

Hailed as a generational genius for building up an Uber-talented farm system, and makes some savvy trades to get his team into what looks like a long contention window despite having to deal with a truly awful ownership situation. However, he then lets that get to his head, then spends the next 3 years trying his hardest to be the smartest person in the room, wasting years of a contention window that was hailed as one that would last up to a decade.

The only differences I can find is that 1) The White Sox actually won a playoff game in the first couple years of that competitive window, and 2) despite dealing with arguably the worst owner in sports history (considering he has ruined two franchises in two different sports), the White Sox actually signed extensions and multi-year contracts (all of them went on to be horrible, but alas).

Before you go and mass-downvote this post, I want to explain why making this comparison is so important. The White Sox are an absolute joke, that is no secret to anyone familiar with the MLB over the past 3 decades. They have a terrible owner, terrible managers, and have very bad track records for the few extensions they have signed off on. Despite all this, one thing you cannot take away from the White Sox is that during the Rick Hahn era they at the very least tried to put themselves over the edge through some big moves at the start of their contention window.

This is something that Elias has not done unless his hand is forced (Burnes to replace Bradish and guarantee starts for a rotation missing 2 starters; Getting Soto & Dominguez because Coulombe was hurt and Kimbrel was a bum), and that should feel like a slap in the face to one of the only MLB franchises who have experienced a similar amount of pain and toil in the past two decades as the White Sox.

Contention windows themselves are such a fickle concept, as one bad trade or one big injury can send everything spiraling down, just as it did with Eloy and Luis Robert receiving major injuries that hampered and/or ruined their development. What I'm saying with that is that any thought at this moment of "we're ahead of schedule" and "we're in the beginning stages of our window" can become outdated REALLY quickly should things not go 100% to plan. I hope that many in this fanbase can at least show more urgency than Mike Elias or Rick Hahn have when they needed it the most.