The White Sox unveiled the coaching staff for new manager Pedro Grifol. Most of the names are new, and only one holdover is truly regrettable.
Here's the roster:
- Bench Coach: Charlie Montoyo
- Pitching Coach: Ethan Katz
- Bullpen Coach: Curt Hasler
- Hitting Coach: José Castro
- Assistant Hitting Coach: Chris Johnson
- First Base Coach: Daryl Boston
- Third Base Coach: Eddie Rodríguez
- Major League Field Coordinator: Mike Tosar
- Senior Director of Sports Performance: Geoff Head
A few of these moves had already emerged in one way or another. Katz and Hasler were mentioned as holdovers and Montoyo was revealed as the bench coach shortly after the White Sox introduced Grifol as the manager. Daryl Van Schouwen relayed Johnson's promotion. Tosar was rumored to be following Grifol to Chicago from Kansas City, and his LinkedIn profile told us his role.
With Tosar, Royals fans poked fun of the White Sox for selling past the close in the media release:
“During his tenure in the Royals system, he worked with Bobby Witt Jr., Kyle Isbel, MJ Melendez, Ryan O’Hearn and Edward Olivares” - congrats to Ryan O’Hearn on getting name dropped as someone Mike Tosar worked with.
— Brandon H. (@BHIndepMO) November 29, 2022
As for the new names:
Castro: He's a native of Cuba who'd been the assistant hitting coach with the Atlanta Braves for the last eight years, which isn't a bad thing to have on the resume given the homegrown nature of their lineup.
Rodríguez: He joins Tosar in accompanying Grifol in the move from Kansas City, as he'd spent the last three years as the Royals' minor-league field coordinator. The 63-year-old is embarking on his 40th year of coaching. I imagine he's one of the few active coaches in baseball who can say he's worked for the Montreal Expos and California Angels.
Head: Here's the way the White Sox wrote up his history:
Head, 37, joins the White Sox as senior director of sports performance after serving as the senior director of health and performance with the Cincinnati Reds for three seasons from 2020-22. Prior to his tenure with the Reds, he spent 12 seasons in the San Francisco organization as strength and conditioning coordinator (2008-2015), major-league sports scientist (2015-2017) and assistant director of player development/director of sports medicine (2017-2019).
What the White Sox didn't say is that the Reds lost the most games to the injured list of any team in 2022, maxing out at 18 players on the IL at two points during the season. That said, the résumé before 2022 is compelling. Head joined the Reds at the same time they hired Driveline Baseball's Kyle Boddy as a pitching coordinator. Boddy only lasted two seasons before they chose to go in a different direction, which came as a surprise since the system had made some major strides in 2021. Before then, Head racked up three World Series rings with the Giants.
The presence of Boston is the only thing that keeps me from taking this enterprise seriously. He's now on his fourth manager despite no detectable track record of success in any of his departments, and a history that probably makes him unemployable for most MLB teams, at least in such a visible role. I'd like to think that the White Sox waited until the last sentence to mention him because they know they should be better.
