Report: White Sox hire Jin Wong as Assistant GM

It appears the White Sox aren’t finished shuffling their front office.

According to USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale in his Sunday Notebook, the White Sox have further shuffled their front office, hiring Jin Wong from the Kansas City Royals to be another Assistant GM on the staff. He is expected to replace Jeremy Haber, who will depart from the team before Spring Training begins.

From Nightengale’s report:

“The White Sox are shuffling their front-office staff and are bringing in Jin Wong from the Kansas City Royals to be an assistant GM. White Sox assistant GM Jeremy Haber is expected to depart on his own before spring training, with Jin fulfilling part of his duties.” 

Wong departed from the Royals “of his own accord” – per The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal – following the 2023 season after 24 years in the Royals organization. He had just completed his second season as the Vice President of Baseball Administration/Assistant GM, in which he assisted with the organization’s day-to-day operations, including player acquisition, contract negotiations, roster and payroll management, salary arbitration, budgetary procedure, and compliance with MLB rules and the CBA. He also oversaw the club’s video coordination for the Major League team, according to his bio on the Royals website.

It was an impressive rise for Wong, who joined the Royals in 2000 as a scouting operations coordinator and rose through the ranks under then-general manager Dayton Moore. Wong previously held roles with the Royals as the Assistant General Manager of Baseball Administration from 2015-21, Director of Baseball Administration from 2006-14, Director of Baseball Operations from 2004-05, Manager of Baseball Operations from 2002-03, Manager of Scouting Operations from 2001-02 and Scouting Operations Coordinator in 2000. He is also a former Division-III baseball player.

As evidenced above and confirmed by MLB.com’s Anne Rogers, Wong “had a major role in the negotiations of multi-year player contracts for the Royals.” This was the same sort of role that Haber held within the organization, helping further explain Wong’s addition to the organization.

Haber was a longtime White Sox front office member himself, working his way up the organization over the past decade, and had so far remained part of the White Sox front office as an Assistant GM alongside Josh Barfield. Beyond that, not much was ever known about Haber – though, Rick Hahn was always sure to mention Haber’s name as part of important conversations in the organization.

According to Bruce Levine, Haber was the team’s “contract negotiation expert and master of detailed information.” He reportedly compiled a 190-page profile on Grifol that was used for background information before Grifol’s hiring in November of 2022. In addition, his work and research were reportedly “instrumental” in the White Sox’s acquisitions of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning in exchange for Adam Eaton in 2016.

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Featured Image: Kansas City Star