Former Angels Pitching Coach Finds New Home With White Sox

On Thursday MLB insider Ken Rosenthal reported that Matt Wise will be the White Sox new bullpen coach. 

Wise has been a member of the Angles coaching staff since 2020 and served as the team’s pitching coach last season. 

The bullpen coach vacancy opened after the White Sox announced Curt Hassler would be moved to a minor league role after seven seasons with the big league club.  

The move is just one of a long list of coaching staff shakeups since the end of the year, which have included cutting ties with hitting coach Jose Castro and first base coach  Daryl Boston as well as reassigning assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson and Hasler to the minor leagues. 

The front office also hired Brian Bannister to become the director of pitching, and Josh Barfield to be the assistant General Manager. 

The White Sox will be the first organization Wise has ever been in outside of the Angels. He has spent his entire 12-year coaching career in the Angels organization, with the majority of his experience coming in the minor leagues. 

The Angels declined the option of former manager Phil Nevin’s contract and are still searching for a new manager. That left the rest of Nevin’s coaching staff uncertain of their job status moving forward which played a factor in why Wise decided to jump ship.  The Angels have allowed everyone on Nevin’s staff to pursue other opportunities.  

He first served on the Angel's big league stagg in 2o2o as the bullpen coach. That year the Angel’s pen posted a 4.63 ERA in the abbreviated 60-game season but ranked in the top ten in the MLB in strikeouts. 

After the Angels suspended and eventually fired, then-manager,  Mickey Callaway, Wise received a promotion to pitching coach. 

In his first season, the Angels staff posted the 22nd-best ERA in the majors. They improved to ninth in 2022 with a 3.77 mark. However this past season the Angels regressed down to 23rd in ERA after the team ERA ballooned up to 4.64. 

That was still better than the White Sox who ranked 26th with a 4.88 ERA last season. Part of that was due to a yard sale of the pitching staff at the deadline which included selling off Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, and Keynan Middleton. 

Lucas Giolito was one of the Angel's major trade deadline acquisitions this past season. But under Wises’s coaching, he went from a 3.79 ERA in 21 games with the White Sox to a 6.89 mark in five starts with the Angels. 

Wise is credited with helping revive the careers of Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers, and Jose Suarez. Sandoval’s ERA dropped from 5.63 to 3.62 when Wise took over the pitching coach duties. It fell once again in 2022 to 2.91. Sandoval also improved his strikeout rate and WHIP under Wise. 

Detmers went from a 7.40 ERA in his rookie season to a 3.77 mark in 2022. Suarez was struggling to stay in the majors before Wise took over but has posted a sub-4.00 ERA in two of the last three seasons. However, all three pitchers saw some regression this season. 

Wise pitched in the majors for eight seasons from 2000-2008. He spent his first three seasons in Anaheim before having to sit out the entire 2003 season due to injury. He spent his next four seasons in Milwaukee before finishing his career in New York with the Mets. 

Wise logged 317 innings posting a 4.23 ERA, 1.247 WHIP, and 244 strikeouts. In 209 games he made a total of 18 starts, owned a 17-22 record, and even recorded two saves. 

The White Sox have yet to make an official announcement.