The new names, jobs of the White Sox 2024 player development staff

Last year, the White Sox's hiring of Pedro Grifol and a brand new coaching staff at the major-league level didn't have many ramifications for the hires downstream.

With former White Sox player development director Chris Getz replacing Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams as the sole decision-maker atop baseball operations -- and with two new player development types working underneath him -- this is the year for bigger shifts in the structure of the White Sox's player development staff.

You'll still plenty of familiar names as you scroll down the list of changes, but there are two themes to pay attention to:

No. 1: Mostly new pitching coaches. This could be anticipated since the White Sox hired Brian Bannister as a senior advisor to pitching, but the White Sox have outside additions at three of their five affiliates.

No. 2: Bench coaches all around. Each full-season affiliate now has a proper bench coach, as opposed to the manager-hitting coach-pitching coach triumvirate that had been the standard.

Keep reading to find out who's new to a position and where they came from at key positions throughout the system, and you can read the press release for the full roster.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT STAFF

The White Sox have a new director of player development in Paul Janish -- as well as an assistant GM in Josh Barfield who previously held the director position for the Diamondbacks -- but the turnover isn't drastic with the player development staff.

The biggest change is at hitting coordinator. Zinter, who has served as a hitting coach for Reds and Padres with stops at assistant coach and player development roles in between, replaces Barkett. He probably won't be as accessible as Barkett, especially when it comes to relaying video from the Dominican Summer League. Hashimoto, a former Driveline Baseball intern, joined the White Sox this winter.

The other moves involve familiar names. Zaleski had effectively held the position since Teaford departed to become the pitching coach at Auburn last summer. Hasler returns to his minor-league roots after the White Sox reassigned him from their major-league coaching staff and replaced him with new assistant pitching coach Matt Wise. Otherwise, the only change is that Newman lost "coach development" from his title.

Here's a quote from Janish the press release, in the event that gets you fired up.

“I am extremely excited to work with this talented group of managers, coaches, coordinators and staff that has been assembled for the 2024 season,” said Janish. “Our entire staff has been working all off-season to ensure our players will be ready to hit the ground running for mini camps, spring training and into the regular season. The ultimate goal remains to have our players prepared and ready to contribute at the major-league level, and we believe this staff is well equipped to help all of our players reach his full potential. I am excited to get our full staff together at our complex and on the field to begin fully implementing our programs with the players in our organization.”

ASSISTANTS TO PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Perhaps signaling Barfield's unidentified influence on the player development staff, the White Sox aren't carrying an assistant director of player development, which is a position Kenny Williams Jr. held last year.

CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS

Two incumbents are joined by two new names. One is familiar, as Listach was the 1992 American League Rookie of the Year, and Rob Dibble started one of the many White Sox-Brewers brawls by throwing at him in 1995. He's been at various managerial positions up and down the minor leagues in recent years, and helmed the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in Philadelphia's system last year. (He and Zinter were both members of the 2014 Astros coaching staff, for whatever that's worth.)

At pitching coach is R.C. Lichtenstein, which sounds like a shoddy alias created under duress by somebody drinking a soda and looking at a map of Europe. A graduate of UIC, Lichtenstein has been a pitching coach in the Tampa Bay Rays system since 2005. His Baseball-Reference.com wiki page says he played Charlie Root, the pitcher who gave up Babe Ruth's called shot, in the 1992 movie "The Babe."

BIRMINGHAM BARONS

The name that generated the biggest "Hmm!" on the list, Santos is back in the White Sox organization. The closer of the 2011 White Sox managed in the Yankees system the last two years, leading the Florida Complex League Yankees to a championship in 2022, then managing the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades into the South Atlantic League playoffs last season. Birmingham will make three consecutive years at a new level.

Farquhar left the White Sox for a promotion with the Mariners, as he's now Seattle's major league pitching strategist and assistant pitching coach, so Ely takes over in a promotion from Winston-Salem. Delmonico returns, and Rosario, who was the fundamentals coach for the ACL White Sox in 2023, rounds out the staff.

WINSTON-SALEM DASH

Quiroz returns, but he's joined by three coaches who are brand new to the White Sox. Kovalik was a pitching coach at four levels in the Houston Astros system, most recently the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks in 2023. Before joining the professional coaching ranks, he was the pitching coach at his alma mater Slippery Rock University. We can talk about living in Troy.

Rickon had spent 23 years in the Cleveland organization before moving to the Cincinnati Reds to serve as their hitting coordinator the last two seasons. Day is a product of the White Sox Amateur City Elite program, and was drafted in the 23rd round out of Simeon High School by the Rangers in 2014.

KANNAPOLIS CANNON BALLERS

The 2023 Kannapolis coaching staff remains intact, with the addition of Millwee, a 30th round pick of the White Sox in 2019 whose career was disrupted by the pandemic. He was a reserve-list catcher who filled in the lower-level rosters when needed in 2021 and 2022, and got plunked 11 times in 89 plate appearances back in 2021.

ARIZONA COMPLEX LEAGUE

Dorris, an undrafted free agent, pitched 111 games over four seasons in the Astros system from 2015 to 2018, then spent five seasons with the Mets as a pitching analyst. Cabrera is the other new name, filling the extra coach role (fundamentals coach last year). He'd spent a long time in the Mariners organization.

DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE

Just about everybody remains in place from last year to this one, but the White Sox added an assistant pitching coach to their DSL staff, and he has a little bit of name recognition. Pimentel pitched in three big-league seasons for the Pirates and Rangers from 2013 to 2015.