The White Sox are expected to promote Chris Johnson to the big league coaching staff, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports (Twitter link). Johnson has been the hitting coach at Triple-A Charlotte for the last two seasons.
Johnson’s new role on the South Side isn’t yet known, though it would stand to reason that he’ll be moving into at least an assistant hitting-coach position on the overhauled Sox staff. Hitting coach Frank Menechino isn’t being retained for the 2023 season, and it doesn’t appear as though assistant hitting coach Howie Clark is coming back either, as Clark wasn’t one of the few names mentioned by GM Rick Hahn as part of next season’s staff. Pitching coach Ethan Katz and bullpen coach Curt Hasler look to be the only coaches returning under new manager Pedro Grifol, and the White Sox have already made a new bench coach hire in Charlie Montoyo.
It will be the first MLB coaching job for Johnson, who only joined the coaching ranks with his hire in Charlotte two seasons ago. Fans will remember Johnson from his eight-year (2009-16) playing career, as he appeared in 839 games and hit .275/.313/.404 with 63 homers in 2995 plate appearances. Most of Johnson’s career was spent with the Astros and Braves, though he also had brief stints in Arizona, Cleveland, and Miami.
Johnson also played in the Orioles’ minor league system in 2017, which marked his last on-field stop in pro ball. After not playing in 2018, he signed a minors deal with the White Sox during the 2018-19 offseason but was cut during Spring Training.
Honestly surprised, I hadn’t noticed he’d gotten into coaching until now. He had a sour reputation with several of the organizations he played for & wasn’t necessarily known for being terribly genial. That said, if he can teach hitting better than the next guy nobody will care about any of that. And people can change as they get older!
If he can walk on water across Lake Michigan, then he should have no trouble getting Grandal to start ‘trying’ to actually hit the ball. Rather than just heading to the plate hoping he can intimidate the pitcher and home plate umpire into giving him a base on balls.
Eventually dugouts are going to go from home to the foul pole to accommodate all the newly titled coaches.
Menechino and Clark were not good hitters. It’s always been confusing to me why guys that were not good hitters in the bigs are given “hitting coach” jobs
I wondered the same thing and then a few years ago I met Don Mattingly at a charity event and asked him why he thought that was the case. His answer was that players that are just naturally talented hitters, which he admitted were a small fraction of players, don’t ever really have to dig down and work on their swings and technique, while guys who struggle to adapt at MLB level or have to work very hard on their swing learn all the drills and techniques and research and watch video on all kinds of hitters and that work lends itself to many of them being able to impart those lessons to other hitters. For me, it’s like how naturally great hockey players like Gretzky can’t coach because they can’t explain what they were able to do to others who aren’t as talented.
Goes both ways. Wayne Gretzky was a terrible coach, as was Magic Johnson.
Johnson was also a terrible talk show host.
Wayne was also in charge of a terrible team
Magic Johnson was a terrible talk show host, as was Chevy Chase.
Wayne Gretzy was a terrible analyst, as was Joe Montana.
The most innately talented players tend to have less helpful advice than more average players that had to figure out any way to squeak any last bit of production out of themselves.
Further, the most talented players almost all made enough money to not even have to coach (unless they are desperate to be away from their family). Mark Prior might be an example of a freakishly talented ML coach but he’s only there because he got hurt.
The type of baseball MLB decides to use is probably more important than hitting coaches for the 16-inch softball squad the White Sox roster.
Second base solved!
Hee hee hee hee comedy gold
Ditching Menechino is fine, but not the problem. The problem is a roster full of mediocre hitters, esp vs righties. They don’t have a single good left handed hitter (by good I mean someone better than Sheets, Moncada, Grandal) on their roster. The best hitting coach in the world isn’t going to fix that. They haven’t hit righties well the past 3 seasons, plus Abreu was one of their only good hitters against RHP. They are going to continue to have problems no matter who their hitting coach is unless they sign someone who is a hell of a lot better and more expensive than Grandal.
the Sox had a hitting coach this season?
I remember when he was a Braves and he had an angry outburst after making an out. Throw his helmet down and hit Terry Pendelton. Terry grabbed him by the shirt collar and wanted to punch him. I don’t it was too long afterwards that Johnson was traded to the white Sox in a salary dump involving Nick Swisher come back to Atlanta
There was a Braves game in MIA where Jose Fernandez pimped his first HR. He stayed and watched it and go nothing but grief from McCann at home plate, while Johnson ran in chirping in his first, only making things worse. After the separation, Johnson is at 3B jumping up and down mad. Guy was always a hot-head and was one of the worst extensions they gave out, after Dan Uggla, during Wren’s tenure.
So basically they picked up a Josh Donaldson? Great
Had a flash in the pan year and got an extension. Chris Johnson, blech.
Nope, traded to the Indians. Looks like your memory is foggy
For asst hiring coach, fine, but I’d like someone with big league success (not just experience) as hitting coach.
why should they hire someone with a proven record when they can get someone on the cheap? the same will be said of the team they put on the field in 2023: the scraps other teams released and dfa’d.
Even if he’s an a-hole at least they got someone with some passion.
Not a surprise, he was a well-respected player I think and his dad was a coach as well. Good for him.
White Sox are puzzling to me right now. They have the ability to light up pretty much anyone, and the narrative is said to be motivational. I’m thinking it’s scouting reports. 2022 the power vanished, which makes me wonder if the scouting is just awful. And it shouldn’t matter who the hitting coaches are if they don’t have the reports. Mennechino worked his way up with all the young hitters on this team. I think he was given the job and then dumped on the required investment for him to be effective. I can only imagine the lack of power is due to hitters having little or no info on what opposing pitchers are trying to do, what their tendencies are and where they go when they are behind, etc.
Their advanced scouting sucks, and humidors, cold weather and injuries all contributed to the lack of power as well.
They have the ability to light up pretty much anyone? They were 9th in the AL in 2022 in runs scored. They haven’t done well against right handed pitching in 3 years. The only pitchers they light up are lefties (they do well against them, I will give you that), but they cannot hit righties at all. Moncada, Sheets, and Grandal are their top 3 left handed hitters, and they are all terrible. Has nothing to do with info on opposing pitchers, but the fact that they have a roster full of mostly mediocre and injury prone players, and literally not one good left handed hitter on the roster. Abreu was probably their best overall hitter vs RHP the past 3 years, and now he will be gone as well. This team has no future until an owner/GM change.
I remember him trying to fight a Cardinal who had homered and Johnson felt he was circling the bases to slow. What a jackass.