New White Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon isn’t shying away from the pressure of his new job.
The pressure is familiar for Shomon because he grew up a fan of the Sox. The Glenbrook South alum wasn’t just a passive observer, he was entrenched in the failures and successes of the franchise. Shomon remembered being a sophomore in high school and bringing a broom and a dust pan after the Sox swept the Astros in the 2005 World Series.
“This has always been home,” Shomon said on a Zoom call with reporters Friday. “Unbelievable opportunity. Grateful for it.”
Shomon sat in the team’s dugout at Rate Field recently, soaking in the moment of working for his childhood team. But that adoration didn’t last too long.
“You don’t dwell on it too long,” he said. “It’s immediately followed up with we have to get to work and what’s the next steps.”
What’s next for Shomon is to work with director of hitting Ryan Fuller on maximizing the Sox’ offense next year that hovered near the bottom of the league for much of the first half.
“He’s very high-energy, very intelligent,” general manager Chris Getz said. “He brings real grit to the position.”
The Sox also hired Sherman Johnson Jr. to be their minor-league hitting coordinator and announced that Joel McKeithan would return as an assistant hitting coach.
When discussing McKeithan’s return and the new hires, Getz said that synergy with Fuller was significant.
Shomon joins the Sox after a season with the Marlins as an assistant hitting coach. There, outfielder Kyle Stowers had his best season as a pro, batting .288/.368/.544 with a .912 OPS. Shomon said the key in Stowers’ ascent was helping the young player find his identity.
Before working in Miami, Shomon spent four years with the Twins — two seasons as a major-league assistant hitting coach, and two seasons as a minor-league hitting coach — where he crossed paths with former Sox player Michael A. Taylor. When general manager Chris Getz and manager Will Venable were building out their lists, Shomon was a name that popped up when they were communicating with people within the industry.
“We felt like we needed someone who was fully aligned with Ryan and fit into this system,” Getz said. “It was crystal clear that Derek was a great fit for that and Sherman as an addition at the minor-league hitting role was also going to be able to carry out what Ryan had put in place and allowing everyone to go out there and accomplish things.”
Being able to connect with young players will be key for Shomon as the Sox will be relying on multiple young players — Kyle Teel, Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth — to contribute offensively.
“We know that we want to accomplish two main things,” Getz said. “One is having a very clear idea of what the challenge is and what the solution is. We know that solutions are going to be different for each hitter, but just having a very clear idea and a well-presented demonstration of what each pitcher is going to challenge our hitters with and then being able to have creative practice design to follow up on that and be able to challenge those things in real time.”
Shomon said he learned in Miami about “upping the training environment.” He wants to make everything as game-like as possible. He saw similarities between the Sox and Marlins in terms of roster composition.
Now, it’s on Shomon to help the Sox improve with runners in scoring position and situational hitting. The Marlins finished fourth in the NL in batting average with runners in scoring position (.275). He’s the Sox’ sixth full-time hitting coach since Greg Walker in 2011.
“It’s a tough job,” Shomon said. “I think there’s a lot of tough jobs in professional sports. I would not trade it for anything. It’s self-inflicted pain but very much worth it.”