White Sox manager Pedro Grifol hinted last weekend that changes were coming to his coaching staff, with James Fegan of the Chicago Sun-Times reporting that assistant pitching coach Curt Hasler was being re-assigned. Now, three more moves have been made to the coaching core, as Daryl Van Schouwen of the Sun-Times reports that hitting coach Jose Castro, first base coach Daryl Boston, and assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson all won’t return to next year’s staff. Johnson is being reassigned, while Castro and Boston appear to be parting ways with the organization entirely.
“The Sox are expected to announce more staff changes this week,” Van Schouwen writes, though pitching coach Ethan Katz is expected to remain with the club. Katz has spent the last three seasons in Chicago, after previously working as assistant pitching coach with the Giants and in various minor league coaching/coordinator roles with the Giants, Mariners, and Angels.
Castro and Johnson are moving on after just one season in their current roles, as clearly the White Sox felt an immediate shakeup was needed in the hitting coach ranks. The numbers bear a strong argument for a quick change — the Sox ranked 29th of 30 teams in wRC+ (83) and runs scored (641) last season, while hitting a collective .238/.291/.384. Those slash line numbers respectively rank 25th in the league in batting average, 30th in OBP, 26th in slugging percentage.
While the coaching staff doesn’t bear sole responsibility for these struggles, “Sox hitters were said to be torn between multiple hitting voices on the staff,” Van Schouwen wrotes. Major League field coordinator Mike Tosar also worked with batters in addition to Castro and Johnson, and while Tosar’s status for the 2024 staff isn’t yet known, it could be that the White Sox might look to simplify things by having a sole hitting coach and Tosar contributing.
The 65-year-old Castro is a longtime baseball man, with 14 years as a player in the minors and over three decades of experience at the Major League and minor league levels as a coach — usually as a hitting coach, though also with some brief stints as a Triple-A interim manager for the Mariners and as a quality assurance coach with the Cubs. Before joining the White Sox last winter, Castro was an assistant hitting coach with the Braves for the previous eight seasons.
Johnson is best known for his eight-year MLB playing career from 2009-16, spent mostly with the Astros and Braves. The 39-year-old worked as the hitting coach for the White Sox Triple-A affiliate in 2021-22 before receiving his promotion to the big league staff.
Boston has been the longest-serving member of the coaching staff (11 seasons) and one of the longer-tenured members of the White Sox organization in general, working on the South Side for the last 26 seasons. Boston, 60, played seven seasons with the White Sox (1984-90) during his 11-year MLB career, and he worked as a roving outfield instructor in the team’s farm system before becoming first base coach.
I think a new first base coach is exactly what the White Sox need to make a push for the division in 2024 and beyond.
LOL – okay that’s fair, but they also got rid of the hitting coach, which can’t be bad. Honestly, I don’t care WHO the players are, when you don’t walk at all, and your pitchers do nothing but walk hitters, it’s time for a change. I mean, the Sox pitchers have really good stuff, yet they are ALWAYS behind in the count and ALWAYS near the worst in league in walk rate. On offense, they have decent hitters and are ALWAYS lowest in the league in ability to work the count and actually walk.
SOME of that is coaching, so I’m good to have a bit of turnover.
The bad news is they are hiring the Tigers hitting coaches from 2022.
How long before Boston is a Red Sox?
bob – If he can coach third base I’d hire him. Can’t be any worse than Febles.
Unfortunately Napoleon Cora is leaning towards retaining all of his coaching staff.
Ironically Boston’s last MLB season was with the Yankees
That needs to happen simply for namesake. Not since Johnny Podres was the pitching coach for the Padres has there been a better opportunity.
I see what you did there
I see what you did there!
There have to be a few retired KC Royal coaches available that Getz can ‘lure’ to help turn this ship around. But . . .look out for that iceberg!!!!
Keep going. Katz should be shown the door and they don’t play hard for Grifol so he needs to get in the former manager unemployment line as well.
slider: I knew all along that Grifol is not the man to lead a rebuild. He has one year of being an MLB manager and made a lot of mistakes, something he should have learned not to make managing in the minor leagues. In his defense, he didn’t have a lot of quality players to deal with, mostly managing minor leaguers and a slew of DFAs. Still, not the right guy, but if he got fired I fear Reinsdorf would bring LaRussa back.
Grifol said all the right things before the season, then he started to say the stereotypical things during spring training and I thought ‘uh oh’ Flash forward to August when he said that he did not realize how bad the locker room needed leadership and how he would take on that mantle (and only after ex players came out to talk about how rudderless this club was), only to see the Sox promptly lose most of the rest of their games to lose 101.. Yeah, Grifol being back leads me to believe more of the same next season. The fact that Getz has any ‘faith’ in Grifol is just as worrisome, as if him being kept around to be GM wasn’t worrying enough.
The perfect manager to lead a successful rebuild? The one that did it so well before: Ricky Renteria.
Not sure I understand why long time servant Boston is shown the door while Grifol is still in situ
Grifol probably makes more than Boston, and we all know how cheap the White Sox ownership is.
Boston lasted as long as he did because he was Kenny’s clubhouse spy.
Yep
No Kenny Williams no DBo. Reinsdorf is 87. Spirit in the sky.
Wow!! Massive overhaul right here!!
Hold on a minute!! The WS had a hitting coach and a assistant hitting coach? Could of fooled me!!
The guy that set the tone is back, but the underlings who followed his example are gone. Because of course the hitting coaches are responsible for the shitshow that is the White Sox.
Boston dates back to frank thomas days.
Chris johnson could rake when he was a brave, but not much hit for a lot of power.
Chris Johnson was also kind of a tool per the word on the street , and not one of the desired five tools
Every season ticket holder I talked to wants grifol gone asap.. #1 for fan base is fire him and they keep him around. Horrible pre and post game comments and HORRIBLE in game decisions. He needs to go. Also everyone saying cheap… sox spent 182 mil.. about 40 mil less than dodgers.. another 40 mil wouldn’t have done anything with this club. You can spend all you want but if you don’t constantly develop you won’t get anywhere.
purplewidow: First, Reinsdorf likes to brag about how much money he’s spent on players, but it’s how it’s distributed that makes the difference. Case in point: Grandal. Second, at least the media aren’t afraid of Grifol like they were LaRussa. All they did was lob softball questions to LaRussa while now they can at least do their job and ask Grifol more interesting questions.
Sox are a dangerous “half team” in a way like the Angels. Probably can’t force the current roster into a major winner…and probably not bad enough to sell off.
As a long time Chicago sports fan I’ll just toss this out to all Chicagoan’s. Who’s is a bigger mess right now. The Bears or White Sox?
Owned by the same man so it makes sense that both teams are floundering badly.
That’s Bulls & Sox genius.
What?
Bears and Sox aren’t owned by the same person. Bears have been in the Hallis family forever I believe. Maybe you’re thinking of the Bulls
You are not a Chicago sports fan if you don’t know who the owners are.
The only reason Boston lasted so long with the Sox is both he and Kenny were Sox teammates for 4 years back in the eighties. Katz should be gone as well.n
Grifol should’ve been launched right after the final game. He’s so far out over his skis, he couldn’t run the corner Starbucks. And once Kenny got axed you knew it was curtains for Boston.
Cool story White Sox. Now maybe get rid of Grifol?
Was positive, until the bit about Katz being around still. How is Katz still around? Do the Sox need a new mascot? He can be ‘Sleepy:’ the mascot that holds a clipboard in the dugout and falls asleep while his pitchers get pummeled on the mound. This kind of ‘change’ should lead most to believe that nothing is going to change, they may have back to back 100 loss seasons.. All because the management are thinking with their heart instead of their heads.
This organization is a joke..Reinsdorf is just gutting the team financially, so they can continue to tank and increase value. The Nashville White Sox 2028.