White Sox To Bring Back Several Key Coaches as Venable Takes Charge

While the man sending in the lineup card will be different next season, the rest of the White Sox coaching staff will be similar to last season’s crew. 

Hitting coach Marcus Thames, pitching coach Ethan Katz and former interim manager Grady Sizemore will each return next season, according to a report from Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. 

Thames and Sizemore are each coming off their first season in the White Sox organization. Thames has been a major league hitting coach for eight seasons. Before coming to Chicago, he was the Angels' hitting coach in 2023. That season their offense ranked third in the American League in home runs, fifth in slugging percentage, and seventh in OPS. While having Shohei Ohtani in the lineup certainly helped matters, it shows that a coach is only as good as the players he has around him. During his first season with the White Sox, the offense ranked near the bottom of the league in every major offensive category. 

Sizemore came over to the White Sox organization with the title of “Major League Coach”. The three-time All-Star helped assistant general manager Josh Barfield with player development in the Diamondbacks organization before the two of them were poached from the organization. Sizemore took the reins as interim manager after Pedro Grifol was fired and posted a 13-32 record. 

Schouwen also reports that Justin Jirschele will return as the third base coach, Jason Bourgeois will retain his post as first base coach, and pitching coach Matt Wise and catchers coach Drew Butera will be back on staff. 

Jirschele was brought up from Triple-A Charlotte on August 8th to replace Eddie Rodriguez as third base coach. Bourgeois will enter his second season with the White Sox. He served as an outfield coach last season and assisted with baserunning.  He previously spent five seasons in the Dodgers organization as the outfield and baserunning coach. 

Butera is a 12-year MLB veteran with 521 games of catching experience under his belt. He was a part of the Royals 2015 World Series team alongside Pedro Grifol which is one of the he was brought on board. Like Butera, Wise will also be entering his second season with the White Sox. From 2021-23 he served as the Angels pitching coach. 

While there are plenty of holdovers from Grifol’s coaching staff, new manager Will Venable's staff does include some fresh faces. Brewers run-prevention coordinator Walker McKiven will serve as Venable’s bench coach. The 35-year-old New Trier High School graduate has been commended for his work developing catchers and assisting with strategy. Orioles co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller was also named the team's new director of hitting.  

According to the Sun-Times, Mike Gellinger and Doug Sisson, who served as interim bench coach after Charlie Montoyo was let go are also expected to remain with the White Sox. However, their official roles within the organization have yet to be announced.