The White Sox announced Thursday that they’ve named Frank Menechino as their new hitting coach, replacing the previously dismissed Todd Steverson.
Menechino, 48, played parts of seven seasons as an infielder with the Athletics and the Blue Jays from 1999 through 2005. He spent the 2019 season as the hitting coach for the White Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte but has quite a bit of prior coaching experience. Menechino served as the Marlins’ assistant hitting coach from 2014-16 before being promoted to their lead hitting coach in 2017-18. He also spent five years as a hitting coach in the Yankees’ farm system before being added to the Marlins’ big league staff.
The White Sox opted not to bring back Steverson or assistant hitting coach Greg Sparks earlier this month, so they’ll likely be on the lookout for an assistant to Menechino as well. Chicago hitters posted the game’s third-highest strikeout rate (25.6 percent) and ranked dead last in terms of team walk rate (6.3 percent) in 2019.
He’s a great coach. That’ll speed up the rebuild. The White Sox will now be competitive … Never. #Miasma
What are you, 12?
Why? You lose interest when they’re older?
Lol
This is a great move with Robert, Madigral and Collins coming up as full time MLB players!
Collins! Really? Collins is a bust. His skills on defense are below average. He has been striking out at a ridiculous rate.
It shows the level of desperation the Sox are at, when they push this guy as a part of the future.
He just got called up from the minors, and you’re calling him a bust? You’re the one who sounds desperate.
He was striking out at a ridiculous rate, in the Minors!!!
He was just called up from his previous demotion from his prior call up where he sure looked terrible
Yah, let’s completely ignore the fact that he we’re talking about a whopping ~30 at bats over the span of an entire month.
Go look up what he did in the minors after getting sent back down (which happened to coincide with Castillo getting healthy – what a coincidence).
People though Moncada was a bust in 2018 but he proved people wrong. The Sox was Castillo blocking Collins this year to get more at bats at the MLB level.
Sox keep up with their incestuous ways. Hiring yet another former draft pick that did not pan out.
Complacency and mediocrity, still rein.
Ken Williams move and your right this organization is pathetic and cheap. But like Riensdorf said try to always come in second place
You’re acting as if he was their 1st round pick. He was their 45th round pick, and 1261st pick overall.
Even if he was being a good coach and being a good player are two completely separately things. Certainly don’t have to go hand in hand.
Good to see him back in the game. He was one of the main reasons the A’s won on the moneyball era
Good ole Frankie Menechino.
With Roberts and Madrigal coming up I think the continuity makes sense. Thank you Ruso for adding absolutely nothing of value to the conversation. You are consistent if nothing else.
Not sure this really makes a difference. Sox problem IMO wasn’t hitting was fielding and pitching. And the pitching was more injuries and youth than coaching. A very solid move sideways I guess.
Outside of a couple guys, they absolutely had a hitting problem. I think you could argue that playing guys like Alonso/Jay/Palka/Cordell/etc. was the main culprit, but the hitting was not good overall.
This feels like a very White Sox move based on Menechino being promoted from within, but in reality, 2019 was his only year with the Sox. I think it’s safe to say they somewhat expected this move when they hired him last year.
My only question: Does anyone know if he speaks Spanish? If not, I sure hope his assistant does.
Asst hitting coach – Ozzie?
Ozzie couldn’t hit.
I would urge all White Sox fans and even Dogbone to check out Frank Menechino Wikipedia web page: (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Menechino).
Clearly he is of Italian American heritage and even played professional baseball a bit in Italy before officially retiring as a player and becoming a full time hitting instructor in 2008. He probably speaks Italian but there is no specific mention of Spanish although it wouldn’t be surprising since both languages derive from a latin base while also considering his vast experience as a player and coach and all the interacting he has done throughout the years with hispanics.
Additionally, Menechino’s charitable work in opening a school for the blind is exemplary and also a bit funny since the article states that he offers those “children a broader array of opportunities scholastically as well as the baseball field”. If he can assist kids with that disability on the ballfield just imagine what me might do with professional hitters.
The suggestion of Ozzie Guillen becoming a White Sox assistant hitting instructor is even more laughable. He might be the last guy this team needs in preaching plate patience and improving their OBP numbers considering Ozzie had neither of those going for him as a former White Sox hitter. Now if the team wants to employ Guillen as an infielder instructor to help Tim Anderson reduce his high error totals at SS that would be an entirely different matter. That said, I’d just assume they not bring in a former White Sox manager as a coach on Rick Renteria’s staff, especially when they already employ Omar Vizquel as their AA manager at Birmingham. Why not promote a potential HOF shortstop who won 10 Gold Gloves to Renteria’s coaching staff instead to help T7 with his E6 issue?
Do you watch baseball, unclemike? I’m thinking no.
Chisox I watch baseball. And if you expected Severson to suddenly turn Palka, Cordell and Jay into top hitting talent you’re delusional. And Alonso did what all the Sox cheap LH options do at Guaranteed Rate. Die. The problem wasn’t the coach, it was the lack of talent. The talented guys got better. Duh
You misunderstand—I’m taking issue with you claiming the Sox don’t have a hitting problem in your original post. Aside from Anderson, Abreu, Moncada, and Eloy, they were terrible offensively last year. Mostly due to some guys who shouldn’t be starting everyday in the big leagues.
Why are you attacking Jon Jay?! He’s a solid bench player who was brought in as attempt to lure Machado. When he finally got healthy he was solid enough player who played too much because of the awful other options. I’d love to have Jay on the bench next season.
The problem definitely included hitting. You’re never going to win with a combination of low OPS, low Slugging, low walk rate, and high strike out rate that the Sox had. Seriously, if I were an opposing pitching coach our game plan against nearly everyone on the Sox is the same: don’t throw strikes, let them chased 4 seamers up and out of the zone and sliders 4 inches out of the zone.
Just look at their overall hitting numbers. The facts speak for themselves. They had a hitting problem
White Sox were in bottom three in AL in OBP, Slugging, Runs and dead last in walks. That was with leader in RBI, Average, rookie AL home runs , and third in average on team. The team hit well for average. They were terrible in every other offensive category.
Typical White Sox.
“Menechino served as the Marlins’ assistant hitting coach from 2014-16 before being promoted to their lead hitting coach in 2017-18.”
I don’t follow the Marlins enough to know which is correct, but according to his bb-ref page:
“In 2014, he was appointed hitting coach of the Miami Marlins. After two seasons as hitting coach he moved to assistant hitting coach for the 2016 season following the hiring of Barry Bonds as hitting coach. He stayed in the position until the end of the 2018 season.”
Baseball Reference is correct. Mike Pagliarulo was fired early this season. He replaced Bonds after 2016.