Diamondbacks director of player development Josh Barfield is expected to leave the D’Backs for a new job in the White Sox front office, according to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin and Steve Gilbert (X link). Barfield will step into the role of assistant general manager, under newly-hired Sox GM Chris Getz.
Barfield isn’t the only newcomer to Getz’s staff, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (via X) reports that the White Sox have also hired Brian Bannister for a role in pitching development and Gene Watson for a player development job. Bannister has worked as the Giants’ director of pitching since December 2019, while Watson was an assistant GM and VP of Major League scouting with the Royals.
Fans may know the 40-year-old Barfield best from his playing career, as he appeared in 309 Major League games with San Diego and Cleveland from 2006-09. He continued playing in the minors and in independent ball until 2013, and then started his post-playing career as a scout with the D’Backs in 2016, moving his way up the front office depth chart until assuming his current role during the 2019-20 offseason.
Bannister is another former player, tossing 667 1/3 innings with the Mets and Royals from 2006-10. (Notably, Getz and Bannister were teammates in Kansas City in 2010.) Since retiring, the 42-year-old Bannister worked from the Red Sox from 2015-19 in a variety of roles, ranging from scout, to assistant pitching coach, to a more analytical front office position as a director of pitching analysis and development. This led to a similar position in San Francisco, as Bannister worked in a uniformed on-field role except in 2022, when league rules didn’t permit Bannister to participate in his coaching role because he wasn’t vaccinated.
Watson also has some past Kansas City ties to Getz and Bannister, as Watson has worked for the Royals for all but one season from 2006-23, as Watson worked for the Angels in 2021. A longtime scout and evaluator, Watson has also worked with the Padres, Braves, and Marlins during a career that began back in 1997. Watson has been interviewed for GM jobs in the past, including the Angels’ opening in 2021 that eventually went to Perry Minasian, though the Halos were impressed enough to still hire Watson away from K.C. for an advisory position.
The three hires bring some fresh voices into the White Sox front office, giving Getz (who has been working for Chicago since 2016) some different perspective as he embarks on his first stint running a baseball operations department. Getz’s promotion continued the criticism that the Sox organization is too insular in its thinking, but today’s hires act as something of a counter to the idea that the White Sox are set in their ways. Barfield and Bannister, like Getz, are younger executives with past playing experience who perhaps have a bit more of a modern analytical approach to player development, whereas Watson brings some old-school scouting knowledge into the fold.
Let’s hope that his first priority will be to help Getz find players who can hit the ball.
I don’t think they will try looking for players who can’t hit the ball.
I don’t know, Getz might want guys that play like he did.
What’s seriously needed for the White Sox is new voices and hopefully these are the right guys. The Sox seriously need a Minor League pitching coordinator who knows what he’s doing and hopefully Bannister is it or knows somebody who’s it. This team needs to bring scouting into this century and can draft players. Time will tell but I like that Getz is at least willing to admit the answers are somewhere else. Kudos for that.
If they were looking for new voices, they would not have hired Getz and would not have brought in more former White Sox.
No, more former Royals, a team that’s even worse than the White Sox, if that’s possible. Hardly fresh faces. More losers from another sad organization.
Last time I checked the royals have double the World Series trophies as the white Sox and been to the World Series many more times .
The White Sox have appeared in ONE WS since 1959. The Royals have appeared in FOUR since 1980. The Royals were champions just 8 years ago. If the Royals organization is “sad”, I can’t even imagine how you’d describe the White Sox.
baseballfang- You describe it as what comes out of the Eastbound end of a Westbound Horse.
Don’t confuse these whiners with logic. They’d cry regardless of who was hired.
Are you sure, vtadave? They’ve got plenty of players now who can’t hit the ball. It might be nice to find some who can.
Is there ANYBODY who enjoys watching these guys play?
@Dumpster Divin’ Theo?!?…..
But but but the Royals have HAD this or that.. yeah, in the PAST.. They also had Grifol, Now the Sox do, and how has that worked out for the White Sox (besides bringing back memories of Ventura as the manager)?!
I was hoping that they first target players that can run and catch…
They’ll be looking for players who will want to come to a team with very little future.
They should focus on good bowlers; look at Mookie Betts!
Leo Getz?
Analytics keeps the old boy network flowing, just keep hiring your old friends from college, whether they have baseball knowledge and experience or not.
at least he didn’t come from Kansas city, enough losers!!
Did you read the article? two of the three hires are former Royals
“I think if we hire a bunch of former garbage middle infielders, we can win a World Series!”
Floyd Bannister’s kid. he has ties with Getz from KC and Sox from his dad with Jerry.
I was hoping it was Alan Bannister.
Again, no matter how bad it looks for the Tigers, White Sox and Royals, they still play in the AL Central and I think their path to contention is way easier than a bad team in any other division.
Bannister is a good get and a pretty sharp dude based on his past player interviews I’ve read about pitching.
Big Sox fan, maybe the most unlikable team in sports, till Reinsdorf sells the team, disaster every year
I feel so sorry for White Sox fans. Reinsdorf seems intent on making sure that they stink every year for the foreseeable future.
That’s exactly what it looks like. Fire Hahn and Williams to appease the fans, then make an even worse choice in Getz instead of seriously interviewing people outside the organization. If Jerry was serious about building a winner, if he cared about his own team, he would have spent a little more than two minutes searching for someone who is legitimately qualified for the job.
Reinsdorf ain’t selling nada.
Why would you want MLB someone that did MLB scouting for the Royals? That just doesn’t strike me as an organization I’d like to replicate.
More hobos, more nepotism, more losing.
Until they field an exciting team, I won’t trust anything that they say or do.
They just need to hire someone named Holmes
Barfield seems to have done a good job with the D’backs’ player development. Hope he can get Getz and JR to listen to his ideas.
Less enthused about the Royals hires. They’re one of only three teams worse than the Sox and their rebuild failed even harder. Are they really the team the Sox are trying to emulate? Not like Grifol has done a single thing he promised to when he was hired.
Bannister is a smart guy who played 4 years for the Royals 15 years ago. Can’t speak for the rest, but I wouldn’t judge him til I saw it. RedSox and Giants are good organizations.
I hope I’m wrong. The problem is that even if he is a smart guy, the Sox still have JR meddling way too much for his own good. And I don’t trust the FO’s judgment in any hires. I have hopes for Barfield, and maybe Bannister is as smart as you say, but they are going to have to markedly change how the Sox operate if this club is going to come out of its tailspin.
Getz, Grifol and these moves seem to be a “safe” foundation for an owner that is planning to sell the team.
Very easy for new ownership to replace any/all of them.
Chicago White Sox = KC East
Why can’t we pry some of the front office talent off of the Dodgers organization? Someone who knows how to put out a quality team year after year?
Since the Sox will never spend like the Dodgers, I’d rather they pry some people from the Rays, but I hear your point. JR is too stuck in his ways to believe that other people might do stuff better than he does.
Im sorry, but after watching this club for the past 30 years, Im dubious of any of their hires.. Especially when the gave the current GM his job just because he got the last seat when the music stopped.
I would like to hope the White Sox finally have it right, but to be honest, Im ‘hoped’ out with this owner, and his horrible horrible decisions. But it is what it is and maybe it will work, but I, and all fans (at least fans who know what they are talking about), have the right to be pessimistic about this org.