White Sox make three changes to coaching staff

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.