Steve Phillips believes White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn should be considered for MLB Executive of the Year. After all, reasons the Sirius-SM analyst, Hahn is helping teams contend all over both leagues.

The White Sox ended their extreme selloff on Monday, adding power-hitting third baseman Jake Burger and middle reliever Keynan Middleton to the list of seven players they dealt to five teams in the final week before the trade deadline. Six of the seven were pitchers, and as noted by NBC Sports Chicago’s Christopher Kamka accounted for 41.2 percent of the innings pitched by Sox pitchers this season.

Hahn agreed to deals that sent Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to the Angels, Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Dodgers, Kendall Graveman to the Astros and Middleton to the Yankees. Then, as a surprising capper, he dealt the 27-year-old Burger, a rare feel-good story for the franchise, to the Marlins.

Phillips, a former GM of the New York Mets, said it’s an indictment of the White Sox’s team-building skills that they can have so many players in demand by contenders on a 43-65 team. The reality is the fire sale might have been even more extensive had teams been willing to give the White Sox prospects for shortstop Tim Anderson and Yasmani Grandal,

Hahn insisted afterward he still believes a team built around Dylan Cease, Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn can be competitive in 2024. But you wonder if the team’s loyal owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, will leave Hahn and Executive Vice President Ken Williams in charge of a franchise that has won three postseason games since 2005.

Hahn’s mid-season deals seemed to target two goals — saving money and adding pitching and catching prospects who can reach the big leagues in a year or two.

While neither Burger nor Middleton had big contracts, they raise the total of money saved to about $18 million in 2023 (with another $10 million off the books for ’24). Burger, who will end this season with only one year of service, ranked second among White Sox position players in WAR (1.3 per Baseball Reference).

The Marlins believe he will join fellow newcomer Josh Bell in adding power to a pitching-first roster that is contending for a wild card spot. He has 25 home runs in 294 at-bats but has needed injuries to create openings for playing time. He is blocked by Yoan Moncada at third base and Jimenez in the DH spot.

Burger has outproduced both of the injury-prone veterans but the Sox front office wasn’t willing to walk away from Moncada and Jimenez, who have a combined $49.6 million guaranteed on their contracts after this season. Hahn says he wasn’t looking to deal Burger but could not turn down the Marlins’ offer of left-hander Jake Eder, a Vanderbilt product with a mid-90s fastball and a slider that Fangraphs calls “one of the nastiest pitches on the planet.”

Fangraphs ranked Eder as Miami’s top prospect and had him 54th overall. The Sox acquired a less highly ranked prospect in 21-year-old right-hander Juan Carela from the Yankees for Middleton. They also acquired an interesting project in 23-year-old right-hander Luis Patino, who they purchased from Tampa Bay for cash.

Patino reached the big leagues as a 20-year-old with the Padres but failed to establish himself in three seasons after being traded to the Rays. He’ll join Eder, right-hander Nick Nastrini, left-hander Ky Bush and right-hander Jordan Leasure in trying to take advantage of a fresh opportunity with the White Sox.

The last two seasons have been a major buzzkill for a fan base that applauded the addition of veterans like Andrew Benintendi, Liam Hendriks, Lynn, Grandal, Graveman and Kelly to the young core that went to the postseason in 2020 and ’21. The 81-81 season in ’22 was blamed on manager Tony La Russa but this time ownership and the front office decided to do more than just change the manager.

There’s some good news for the franchise: The White Sox are currently positioned to have the fourth pick in the 2024 draft.