Larry Stone:

Cross yet another name off the Mariners’ GM candidate list. According to baseball sources, the M’s were denied permission by the White Sox to interview Rick Hahn, their assistant general manager.

Teams aren’t allowed to deny their executives a chance at a promotion, so I can only assume Hahn has something written into his contract to restrict him.  This is legal, but commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t like it much and is said to be investigating these clauses.  Either that or Hahn doesn’t want the job and the Sox are just speaking on his behalf.

Hahn was a Harvard grad and a former agent before going to work for the highly regarded Kenny Williams in Chicago.  He wouldn’t have been a bad choice, but I’m not convinced that he’d be better than Tony LaCava, Jerry DiPoto, Peter Woodfork or Kim Ng.