The new names, jobs of the 2022 White Sox player development staff

The White Sox usually announce their player development staff in mid-January, and while most other teams continued with that general timeline, the White Sox remained mum until February, when they finally posted the coaching rosters this morning.

Perhaps the new hitting coach at Winston-Salem has something to do with that.

Nicky Delmonico is returning to the White Sox organization in the coaching ranks, taking over as the hitting instructor for the Dash. He failed to surface in the majors in 2021 after three straight years of appearances with the White Sox, hitting .221/.312/.382 for Triple-A Louisville in the Cincinnati Reds organization. There have been a spate of mid- and late-winter retirements across baseball, with Melky Cabrera, Gordon Beckham and Alec Hansen among those with White Sox ties calling it a career recently. Maybe Delmonico needed a couple of months to see how the landscape would shake out before figuring out what to do with his age-29 season.

Delmonico is probably better equipped than most recent players for such a transition. His father, Rod, coached the University of Tennessee's baseball program for 18 years, and also helmed the Netherlands team in a World Baseball Classic.

At any rate, with Major League Baseball forbidding its team sites from referencing current players, whitesox.com has a new most relevant person to feature on its home page.

Some suggested headlines:

• Nicky One Strike: Delmonico a true White Sox original
• "The it factor": When Ricky met Nicky
• Steak 'em! Former White Sox players with food names

Beyond the return of Delmonico, here's the annual assessment of the organization's titles, and the people who occupy them.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT STAFF

Grace Guerrero Zwit, a pioneer for women in baseball and a member of the White Sox's player-development ranks for the last 40 years, might be the team's most notable offseason retirement of them all. She's replaced by Jasmine Dunston, the daughter of Shawon. Daryl Van Schouwen wrote a nice article about the transition.

Among other changes, Julio Mosquero replaces John Orton, who had coached in the White Sox system since 2001, and spent more than a decade as the catching coordinator. Likewise, longtime performance coordinator Goldy Simmons has been replaced by a human consulting firm as Simmons moves up to replace Allen Thomas at the MLB level, and Ryan Newman moves from managing various A-ball dugouts to a roving role. Hansen was hired by Intel, so it's nice to see the position remain. You can read Gearhart's bio here.

ASSISTANTS TO PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

The White Sox seemed to streamline their assistant roles. Larimer is the only new name, but a handful of names and a couple of titles have been removed from this sector compared to last year's list.

CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS

Charlotte's entire coaching staff returns intact. I'd wondered whether Helms would return, given that he was the lone remaining White Sox employee referenced in the lawsuit against Omar Vizquel, the Birmingham Barons and the Chicago White Sox as a witness to the alleged harassment of a batboy. The White Sox said they fired Vizquel prior to the lawsuit after investigating the matter after the 2019 season, so here's hoping Helms' is returning because of a true lack of culpability, not mere convenience.

BIRMINGHAM BARONS

Romero returns to coaching the hitters at Birmingham, which is where he was assigned before the cancellation of the 2020 season. He spent last year in the same role with Kannapolis.

WINSTON-SALEM DASH

Delmonico isn't the only new name on the Dash's coaching staff. Bundy, 62, started managing the Montreal Expos' Gulf Coast League affiliate in 1990. He returned to the position after a seven-year layoff in affiliated baseball with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The baseball lifer is a product of James Madison University, and he had a couple of profiles written about him in 2021 in the Richmond Times Dispatch and the school's newspaper.

KANNAPOLIS CANNON BALLERS

Seitzer and Romero flip-flopped positions. Otherwise, everything is the same. Here's hoping Ely has better luck this time around.

ARIZONA ROOKIE LEAGUE

The son of Jim Leyland gets his first chance at a minor-league managerial job after spending the last two years in general coaching roles.

DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE

Once again, no changes of note.