The Chicago White Sox have finalized their 2023 coaching staff around new manager Pedro Grifol. It was previously announced that pitching coach Ethan Katz and bullpen coach Curt Hasler would retain their jobs, with Charlie Montoyo taking the reins as the bench coach. However, the remaining coaching positions were still up in the air. Until now.

On Tuesday, in what was a conveniently timed announcement to distract from the Jose Abreu press conference in Houston, the White Sox announced who would be filling out the remainder of the coaching staff. There was no shortage of turnover, with a couple of familiar faces remaining in the organization. 

Grifol’s staff is as follows: 

Bench Coach: Charlie Montoyo

Pitching Coach: Ethan Katz

Bullpen Coach: Curt Hasler 

Hitting Coach: Jose Castro

Assistant Hitting Coach: Chris Johnson

First Base Coach: Daryl Boston

Third Base Coach: Eddie Rodriguez

Major League Field Coordinator: Mike Tosar

Senior Director of Sports Performance: Geoff Head 

During Grifol’s short time in the organization, two new positions have already been added to the coaching staff. Last season the White Sox did not have a Major League Field Coordinator or a Senior Director of Sports Performance. There seems to be a mix of people that Grifol hand-picked and people the White Sox wanted to retain. 

“I want to just say how thrilled we are with the staff that Pedro has put together and from a variety of experiences, from people from different organizations, different approaches,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “We are really excited about the level of talent he has surrounded himself with.

“I’d say we are looking forward to getting to work. But I know there already have been numerous meetings face to face with several players, as well as a handful of conversations with members of the front office as they prepare for Spring Training and what our game plan in other operations are going to look like.”

At this point, fans are used to Rick Hahn’s typical lawyer speak, but his sentiment holds some truth. The combination of diverse resumes in the White Sox dugout should have fans excited. 

Charlie Montoyo

Montoyo enters his first season with the organization after managing the Toronto Blue Jays from 2019-2022 before being fired midway through the 2022 season, when the club had a 46-42 record. 

Montoyo is a slam-dunk hire for the White Sox. The 57-year-old finished fourth in the Manager of the Year voting in 2021 and third in 2020. He guided Toronto to 91 wins in 2021, narrowly missing the playoffs in a loaded AL East race, despite finishing 20 games over .500

Before joining the Blue Jays, he kickstarted his coaching career in Tampa Bay in 1997 when he landed a job as the Rookie-level Princeton Devil Rays manager. He eventually worked his up to Triple-A to manage the Durham Bulls. He posted a winning record in seven of his eight seasons in Durham, including five consecutive winning seasons from 2007-2011.

The Puerto Rican native managed for his home country during the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He was also a coach for the World Team in the 2010 and 2011 All-Star Futures Games. In 2016 he got his first big-league coaching opportunity as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. He remained there until the Blue Jays eventually hired him in 2019.

The one thing Pedro Grifol lacks is managerial experience in the big leagues. Having Montoyo in the dugout should make up for that.

“Charlie’s managed before. He’s got a great track record,” Grifol said. “He’s going to be right there next to me, from page one until the end. The way I was brought up, watching Ned Yost do it and then, obviously, doing it with [Mike] Matheny, this is not a one-man show.

“This is all of us, together, preparing, and then obviously, during a game we’ll be communicating, but somebody has to make that decision. That’s going to be me, but he’ll be right there with me.”

Ethan Katz 

Katz completed his second season as the White Sox pitching coach in 2022. He was hired partly because of his work with Lucas Giolito, who he coached at Harvard-Westlake Highschool in California. 

Before getting hired, he was the assistant pitching coordinator with the San Fransisco Giants in 2019 and a pitching coach in the Seattle Mariners organization from 2016-2018. 

His resume with the White Sox speaks for itself. During his first season, the White Sox posted the second-best ERA in the American League with a 3.73 mark. It was also their lowest since 2005. 

Carlos Rodon had a breakout season finishing in the top ten (5th) of the Cy Young voting along with Lance Lynn (3rd) and Liam Hendriks (8th). Meanwhile, Lucas Giolito finished 11th in the voting and joined Dylan Cease as the second set of White Sox teammates to record 200 plus strikeouts in a season. 

In 2022, Dylan Cease blossomed into an ace, finishing second in the AL Cy Young voting and posting a career-best 2.20 ERA. Johnny Cueto also came in and revitalized his career, posting a 3.35 ERA in 25 games. Katz was one of the few bright spots on the previous coaching staff. 

Curt Hasler 

Hasler has been with the organization for 32 years and will enter his seventh season on the major league staff. 

He pitched at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and was eventually drafted by the White Sox in the 21st round of the 1987 MLB Draft. 

He first joined the organization as a coach after being hired as the Class A Sarasota pitching coach in 1991. During his tenure in the White Sox player development system, he has overseen the development of future major leaguers Chad Bradford, Mark Buehrle, Aaron Bummer, Matt Guerrier, and Boone Logan. 

The former Bradley University pitcher oversaw the first no-hitter in Southern League history as a pitching coach of the Class AA Birmingham Barons in 2001. Seeing that the pitching was not one of the White Sox’s significant issues last season, it makes sense that he was retained alongside Katz. 

Jose Castro 

Castro previously served as the Atlanta Braves assistant hitting coach for the last eight years, including the 2021 World Series team. The Braves offense ranked second in the National League in home runs in 2021 and first in 2022. Castro’s tutelage could be the antidote for a White Sox lineup lacking power. 

Former Braves third baseman Chris Johnson will serve as Castro’s new assistant hitting coach. 

“It’s almost probably a two-and-a-half-headed monster when it comes to the hitting,” Grifol said. “Jose Castro, I have a long history with. I hired him as a hitting coordinator in Seattle. He’s been in the game a long time; he’s got a lot of experience. I believe he’s one of the best in-game hitting coaches around. He’s got tremendous instincts.”

Castro is a former infielder who played in the minor leagues for 14 seasons from 1977-1990. He was never able to make it to the big leagues. Upon retirement, he became a hitting coach for the Montreal Expos organization in 2003, then got hired to be the hitting coach for the San Diego Padres Triple-A affiliate in 2005, the Portland Beavers. He stayed there for two seasons until he was named the roving minor league hitting instructor for the entire Seattle Mariners organization in 2007, then promoted to the minor league hitting coordinator in 2009. On August 9, 2010, Castro was announced as from hitting coach to the interim manager of the Tacoma Rainiers

Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson joins the staff from Triple-A Charlotte. The 38-year-old was hired as the hitting coach for the Charlotte Knights before the 2021 season. 

During his lone season in Charlotte, the Knight’s offense ranked in the top ten of the International League in home runs (177), RBIs (685), batting average (.258), and slugging percentage (.418) 

He played eight seasons in the MLB from 2009-2016. During his career, he batted .275 with 63 home runs and 339 RBIs. Grifol intends for him to work closely with Castro and Tosar to develop a hitting program. 

“I was really impressed by his knowledge of analytics, the terminology he uses,” Grifol, who admitted he had just met Johnson a few weeks earlier, said. “Those two, along with Tosar, who was part of that hitting program down in Kansas City, are going to make a great team when it comes to communication with the players, being able to make adjustments and adapt to every single player, every culture and also adapt to any type of analytics or sports sciences that’s thrown our way as well. We’re going to use it all.”

Daryl Boston 

Boston returns to the White Sox for his 11th season as the first base coach. According to James Feegan of the Atheltic, Grifol cited Boston’s relationship with players when asked about the decision to keep him on the staff. 

Boston was previously in charge of baserunning instruction, but after last season’s abundance of base running blunders, he will shift his focus to the outfield. Montoyo will take over baserunning instruction. 

The 59-year-old was in the White Sox player development system from 1998-2012, including 12 as the minor league outfield instructor. Before getting hired by the White Sox, he was a player-coach with Regina in the Independent Prairie League in 1996. 

Eddie Rodriguez

Eddie Rodriguez is new to the organization and will replace Joe McEwing as the White Sox third base coach. Rodríguez will lead the infield, with help from Tosar and Montoyo. 

The 63-year-old has spent 40 years as a coach in professional baseball. During that span, he has served two stints with the Royals. During his most recent stint, he served as the minor-league infield coordinator, working with Grifol for the last six seasons. 

He was the Royals third base coach from 2011-2013. Rodriguez also served as the Seattle Mariners first base coach, the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals bench coach, a first base and third base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Toronto Blue Jays third base coach. 

Mike Tosar 

Mike Tosar is one of the coaches that Grifol brought over from Kansas City. He was initially thought to be the new White Sox hitting coach. Instead, he will take on the newly minted role of Major League Field Coordinator. His job is to help lead the infield and work with Castro and Johnson in the hitting realm. 

Tosar was the Royals’ Special Assignment hitting coach. The Royals tried to retain Tosar on their 2023 staff before he followed Grifol to Chicago. 

Tosar joined the Royals in his current position in 2020. Before that, he was an International Scout and Special Assignment Hitting Coach with the Dodgers from 2012-19. He’s also worked with the Mariners, Twins, Marlins, and Rays organizations.

Tosar was credited with helping the development of multiple big names on the Royals. Mike Moustakas selected Tosar to throw to him during the 2017 Home Run Derby. It speaks volumes about what players think of him as a coach. 

In 2017 Grifol and Tosar worked in tandem to turn Jorge Soler into the force he is today. The pair communicated to assess Soler’s situation and formulated a plan, which began with a psychological approach. This helped build up his confidence. 

A story from Alec Lewis in the Athletic documented how Tosar got to work with him in the batting cages and noticed something off with his swing. He felt he was swinging too lightly. Tosar had him focus on swinging deliberately during practice to replicate the in-game speed. Two years later, Soler led the league in home runs. 

Salvador Perez saw what Tosar did to Soler, so he turned to him in for help before the start of the 2020 season. They worked together five days a week, doing drills to help tighten his swing. In 2021 Perez led the league with 48 home runs.

If Tosar can turn Soler and Perez into home run machines, perhaps some of his magic can wear off on the White Sox. 

Geoff Head 

Head will take over the newly created Senior Director of Sports Performance role. 

He was previously the Senior Director of Health and Performance for the Cincinnati Reds, a position he held for three years. The 2022 season will mark Head’s 16th in professional baseball. 

The bulk of his time was spent with the San Fransico Giants organization. In over a decade in San Fransico, he served various roles. From 2008 to 2015, he was the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator. In 2015 he became the team’s Major League Sports Scientist and the Assistant Director of Player Development. He served both roles until 2017, when his title switched to Director of Sports Medicine). 

The White Sox have been hampered by crushing injuries the last two seasons. Looking at Head’s resume, it appears he has been brought to the South Side to help combat that.