The White Sox landed on their new manager yesterday and agreed to a deal with Pedro Grifol. The team didn’t officially announce the hiring of the now-former Royals coach, but USA Today’s Bob Nightengale did tweets they will do it tomorrow.
With Grifol replacing Tony La Russa, the Sox are expected to overhaul their coaching staff. Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported yesterday that a number of coaches have not been recalled and reports last night suggested Charlie Montoyo had joined the staff as bench coach. The status of Miguel Cairo, La Russa’s bench coach, remains unclear but some other staff are known to be leaving the organisation.
Hitting coach Frank Menechino and catching coach Jerry Narron won’t be returning in 2023, reports The Athletic’s James Fegan. So does third-base coach Joe McEwing, as first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Daryl Van Schouwen.
Previous reports have suggested that pitching coach Ethan Katz and assistant pitching coach Curt Hasler would be retained. The futures of Cairo, assistant hitting coach Howie Clark and first base coach Daryl Boston have not been publicly announced, but Fegan suggests the departures could extend beyond Menchino, McEwing and Narron.
Of the known departures none is more significant than that of Menechino. The 51-year-old has been the South Side’s hitting coach for the past three seasons. He was also a two-year batting coach with the Marlins and coached in the Yankees and Chicago farm systems. He held the position of hitting coach under both Rick Renteria and La Russa.
The White Sox were a generally successful offensive team during Menechino’s tenure. Going back to the start of the 2020 campaign, they rank ninth in run scoring and park-adjusted hitting (105 wRC+). However, the 2022 results were more mid-table, with Chicago finishing 19th in runs. They finished 18th with a .310 basis percentage and a .387 slugging mark, and only the Tigers drew fewer walks.
Like any manager, Menechino certainly doesn’t deserve all the credit for the club’s above-average success in 2020-21, nor all the blame for their disappointing 2022 numbers. Still, it’s not uncommon for a new manager to make some adjustments to the coaching staff, and it seems likely the Sox are hoping a new voice can coax a slightly more patient offensive approach. Chicago’s roster is built around a number of aggressive hitters, but the team finished with the second-highest rate of chases on pitches outside of the batting zone, while checking in closer to average when swinging on pitches within the zone.
As for the other personnel changes, McEwing and Narrow are both longtime big league coaches. McEwing has been a coach for the Sox organization since 2008 and on the MLB team since 2012. He spent a number of years as a bench coach between his stints as third base coach. Narron was previously a bench coach in Arizona and Boston. He had been on the Chicago staff for the past two seasons.