For years, the Tampa Bay Rays have been the model in baseball for doing more with less. For a team like the White Sox, which also lacks a track record of heavy spending in free agency, poaching someone from their front office seems like a smart play.
The White Sox took that step Friday, announcing that they have hired former Rays executive Carlos Rodriguez as assistant general manager
Rodriguez is expected to join Josh Barfield and Jin Wong as assistant general managers, giving the White Sox three AGMs with experience from three different organizations. Barfield joined the club from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023, while Wong came over from the Kansas City Royals during the 2024 offseason.
Adding Rodriguez to the front office marks another step by general manager Chris Getz to bring outside voices into a White Sox organization long known for internal hiring and promotion.
For more than a decade, the franchise was led by Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams despite inconsistent on-field results. Getz himself rose through the organization before being promoted to general manager, making the addition of Rodriguez part of a broader effort to diversify the team’s decision-making voices and modernize its baseball operations.
Rodriguez’s background in Tampa Bay should help accelerate that process. The Puerto Rican native left the Rays in October after 15 years with the organization, bringing extensive experience across scouting and player development.
He joined Tampa Bay in 2010 as a professional and international scout after a stint with Toronto in 2009, where he helped sign Yan Gomes, who later became the first Brazilian-born player to reach the majors. Rodriguez was then promoted to director of Latin American scouting in 2012 and, over the next two years, expanded the Rays’ global footprint while helping modernize their international evaluation and acquisition process.
That experience could be particularly valuable for the White Sox, who have a long history of signing players out of Cuba. Rodriguez’s arrival has the potential to both strengthen that pipeline and expand the club’s reach into other Latin American markets.
Rodriguez later oversaw player development and performance science, earning credit for expanding the Rays’ sports nutrition and individualized performance and wellness programs. Those initiatives helped lay the foundation for Tampa Bay’s farm system to post the best winning percentage in minor league baseball in 2021 and 2022, including a minor league-best plus-634 run differential in 2022.
He was promoted to vice president of player development and international scouting in 2019 and served in that role for three years before being named vice president of baseball operations and assistant general manager in 2022, focusing on major league operations, strategic initiatives, and international operations.
Rodriguez said in a statement when he left the Rays that he wanted to “explore other opportunities.” After his departure was announced, Tampa Bay president of baseball operations Erik Neander called Rodriguez “an invaluable presence in our organization” who made a “lasting impact across our operations.”
While the hire may not carry the splash of a marquee free-agent signing, it could prove to be a pivotal move for the White Sox. As the club continues efforts to modernize player development throughout its minor league system, Rodriguez brings a proven track record in scouting and performance sciences, areas the organization has prioritized under Getz.
Getz has also shown a clear affinity for talent coming from the Rays organization. Over the past year, the White Sox have traded for outfielder Tristan Peters, acquired infielder Curtis Mead, and minor league pitchers Duncan Davitt and Benjamin Peoples in the Adrian Houser trade. Chicago also selected Alexander Alberto from Tampa Bay in the Rule 5 draft and claimed pitchers Mike Vasil and Brandon Eisert off waivers, all within the last calendar year.
