The White Sox, long run like a small-market team, aren’t going to be big spenders in free agency this offseason, but that shouldn’t hinder them in the area they’ve squarely made a top priority: developing talent.
After a 60-102 season in which they couldn’t win on the margins, they’ve brought in an experienced executive from a team that did — Carlos Rodriguez, who was hired as an assistant general manager Friday after spending 16 seasons with the Rays, including the last six as vice president after working in international scouting and player development.
Given the stagnation of once-prized prospects Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jimenez at the major-league level, the Sox hope Rodriguez — whom the Rays credited with enhancing their player-development system — will help them develop prospects who can capitalize on small advantages.
They’re also counting on a revamped coaching staff. In addition to hiring Zach Bove as pitching coach and Derek Shomon as hitting coach in November, they have added Bobby Hearn as assistant pitching coach, Chris Denorfia as major-league field coordinator and Tony Medina as an assistant.
“You always hear about this balance between winning and development,” manager Will Venable said on a teleconference call Friday. “For us, creating a winning culture and winning games is about developing, and that was at the forefront of what we wanted to do. . . . I’m really excited about this second pitching coaching job now putting us in this spot where, really, even beyond that, we’re kind of structuring things to take some of the game-planning stuff off the head coach’s plate.”
It surprised many when the Sox — with the fourth-youngest pitching staff in the majors and the eighth-youngest lineup — fired popular pitching coach Ethan Katz after the season. But general manager Chris Getz and Venable, fresh off his first season as skipper following the Sox’ historic 121-loss season in 2024, wanted to rethink the team’s vision.
“What is the structure that we find the most beneficial, the flows of communication, the responsibilities, and how [are we] gonna split those up?” Venable said. “As we reimagined some of these roles and put those things into place, we were then able to follow up and say, ‘These will be the types of people [on] the coaching staff that can carry this structure, that can carry this program and really bring it to life.’ It wasn’t necessarily like, ‘I need to bring my guys in or anything.’ We just needed to hit the reset button a little bit.”
They’ll get help in that department from Rodriguez, who joins Josh Barfield and Jin Wong, the Sox’ other assistant GMs.
“I’ve known Carlos for many years and have followed his career and impact with the Rays organization,” Getz said in a release. “He’s an intelligent, thoughtful and experienced leader who has contributed meaningfully across nearly every area of baseball operations.”
The Sox’ attention now turns to a roster that doesn’t look much different yet.
“I know that [Getz] and the group are hard at work doing everything they can every day to improve us in whatever way they can,” Venable said. “I anticipate there being a lot of moves here coming up, just like there will be across the league, knowing there is so much time.
“But at the same time, we are really excited about the group we have. There’s been a ton of great work between our coaching staff, our development group, our players, a lot of communication, a lot of synergy and excitement in the progress guys have made this offseason.”