The new names, jobs of the White Sox 2025 player development staff

In his first year as White Sox director of player development, Paul Janish oversaw fairly substantial changes for the player development staff. He, Chris Getz and Josh Barfield brought in a fair amount of coaches from the outside and set new paths at the director and coordinator levels of the organization. While the results were inconsistent on the hitting side, they made some strides on the other side of the ball, and won games than usual in the minors as well.

As one might expect, the adjustments in Year Two are subtler. Were it not for Justin Jirschele's late-season promotion to Chicago after Pedro Grifol's firing and John Ely's retirement, there might not be a new coach among the four full-season affiliates. They have been replaced by new additions from the outside, but the other coaches remain in their roles, although the affiliate may have changed. Janish’s mention that Hawkeye systems were being installed at the affiliates might bring more change than any of the staffing moves.

Let's take our annual tour of the notable changes.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT STAFF

Fuller is the most substantial addition, but if he doesn't feel new, it's only because he's been the subject of multiple interviews here. Perhaps because he's considered the Brian Bannister of Hitting, the Brian Bannister of Pitching has been added to the White Sox's player development roster, although his role hasn't changed.

Given that Fuller has already been able to make your acquaintance, the biggest difference is at the very bottom, as the White Sox have added two player development analysts to their player development staff. Previous stabs at modernizing their approach to analytics led to inconsistent intepretations of metrics and systems that didn't talk to each other, and installing analysts at the lowest levels of the org is a refreshed attempt at more consistent input throughout the system.

"For me, it's huge," Janish said on a Zoom call Thursday. "I'm a believer that we need to be able to defend ourselves to the players. When we tell somebody what we think they need to work on or how they need to work on it, etc., being able to lean on some more objective data than maybe we have in the past, I think is just an advantage. [...]

"They're a resource for our staff and players as well. But in particular, staff to be able to better evaluate and honestly better coach, better fix problems. Diagnose what's actually wrong. It's not subjective as much. And also it's preconceived biases. What somebody maybe struggled with and/or did well the previous year, they're not doing that as well this year as they did last year. All of those things, it's checks and balances, make no mistake. But at the end of the day, those guys are going to be embraced and we're excited to have them."

ASSISTANTS TO PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Two of the three new names aren't new to the White Sox. Larson shifts from assistant director of baseball operations to have a greater hand in the pitching operation, while Sisson returns to the player development staff after lending his hand to the Grady Sizemore administration by serving as co-bench coach.

The other is Nevin, who is a notable addition for reasons pure and cynical. The White Sox considered him for the managerial vacancy that Will Venable filled, but they ended up hiring him for a more wide-ranging role. Under most circumstances this would be considered a neat trick, and to the extent that there's any reason for skepticism, it's only because Tony La Russa has been Nevin’s champion in the past.

Janish said Nevin's role is "intentionally vague" at the onset because of his breadth of experience as a top prospect, MLB player, major- and minor-league coach and manager, and even a father to players that some Sox players and prospects would consider peers.

"I just think that he is going to add value in a bunch of different ways," Janish said. "He's got the ability to communicate with both staff and players. He's got two sons that are playing professional baseball, that, whether you want to talk about coming through travel baseball, playing in college, playing in the minor leagues. He's just got some perspective there in a lot of different ways that I think are going to help us."

CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS

Santos was rewarded for his Southern League title with a promotion to Triple-A, as was bench coach Rosario. Since Ely removed himself from consideration, Aldred comes in as the only new pitching coach among the four full-season affiliates. He had spent the last five years with the Marlins as their pitching coordinator before the Peter Bendix purge in August, and Janish said that Charlotte's pitching staff was a selling point, which is something you seldom hear.

"I think we're benefiting from the fact that he's in a spot where he wants to be back at an affiliate, and have a pitching staff," Janish said. "Being transparent, he's excited about kind of where we are. We have a lot of good arms coming through the organization that are kind of on the cusp of the major leagues or some of them have already been in the big leagues. That was really appealing to him."

At hitting coach, Jim Rickon and Cam Seitzer swapped levels.

BIRMINGHAM BARONS

Delmonico is the lone holdover from last year's championship-winning staff. Quiroz and Kovalik were promoted from Winston-Salem, and Milwee from Kannapolis.

WINSTON-SALEM DASH

Leyland and Hickman are working their way up the chain after a successful season in Kannapolis, and they'll get some Triple-A support from the other two coaches. Listach managed the Charlotte over the final month after the White Sox promoted Jirschele to Chicago, and the Knights played relatively well under him.

KANNAPOLIS CANNON BALLERS

"Good luck finding somebody to not say great things about Chad Pinder," Janish said. Evan Marshall might disagree, given that Pinder hit the decisive two-run single off him for Oakland in Game 3 of the 2020 Wild Card Series, but Janish said Pinder, two years off his last go-around in professional baseball as a player, brings a lot of enthusiasm for coaching at the lower rungs.

"He's got a passion for wanting to make people better. He really thinks based on some of the coaches, other players that he was exposed to as a young player, that really stuck with him. He wants to be that guy for current players," Janish said.

He'll be paired with Dorris, who is making his full-season debut with the White Sox after serving as the pitching coach for the ACL White Sox last season.

ARIZONA COMPLEX LEAGUE

Janish tapped his Rice University connections to bring in Hardy, who worked as an assistant coach with the Owls a few years ago before being hired as pitching coach by Gardner-Webb University in 2023. The other names are familiar, although this Coolbaugh is the son of former White Sox assistant hitting coach Scott. He'd spent the past six seasons in the college ranks.

DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE

The coaching staff changes in the DSL are minor in nature as the White Sox await the construction of their new facility in the Dominican Republic. Janish said that he's hopeful that the White Sox will be able to move into it in 2026, but he made no promises.