White Sox To Hire Marcus Thames As Hitting Coac

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The White Sox are set to hire Marcus Thames away from the Angels and install him as their new hitting coach, Robert Murray of FanSided. Thames held the same title with the Halos in 2023 his first season with the organization. FutureSox.coms James Fox first earlier this morning that Thames was under consideration to be named the Sox new hitting coach. Thames becomes the second Angels staffer to jump to the White Sox this offseason; Chicago as their new bullpen coach. Thames, 46, enjoyed a decade-long playing career from 2002-11, appearing in 640 big league games and popping 115 home runs while batting .246/.309/.485 between the Yankees, Rangers, Tigers and Dodgers. Upon calling it quits as a player, he began his coaching career as a Jim Presley Jersey minor league hitting coach with the Yankees, eventually ascending to their Major League staff as a sistant hitting coach in 2016. Since taking that initial big league job in the Bronx, Thames has been a fixture on Major League coaching staffs. The Yankees promoted him to their lead hitting coach for the 2017 season a position hed hold through 2021, when his contract wasnt renewed. Hes since had one-year stints as the hitting coach with the Marlins and Angels. Of course, a hitting coach cannot singlehandedly take credit for radically turning the tides of a lineup (for better or for worse), but its neverthele s notable that the Angels went from a lowly .233/.297/.390 batting line with 623 runs scored, a 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 2022 to far better results in 2023. Halos hitters produced at a collective .245/.317/.426 rate in 2023, scoring 739 runs and making modest strides both in terms of team strikeout rate (24.8%) and walk rate (8.4%). Thats attributable to myriad factors, but the Sox surely feel that Thames work is among them. More broadly, his growing coaching experience in whats now an eight-year MLB coaching career has added to his reputation and clearly drawn fairly broad-reaching interest. Detractors might point to short stints in both Miami and Anaheim, but both organizations ousted their manager after Thames first season on the job. Because managers typically are provided the opportunity to fill out their own coaching staffs, seeing Thames bounce around a bit isnt nece sarily all that surprising. The Angels are still in the proce s of looking for a replacement for outgoing manager Phil Nevin, whose contract expired at seasons end and who will not return for a third year on the job. As for the Sox, while theyre sticking with skipper Pedro Grifol despite a highly disappointing 2023 campaign, the coaching staff is already undergoing ample turnover. In addition to Thames and Wise, the South Siders have as a baserunning/outfield coach. The Sox also rea signed a pair of coaches (a sistant pitching coach Curt Hasler and a sistant hitting coach Chris Johnson) in addition to moving on entirely from hitting coach Jose Castro (whom Thames will now replace) and first base coach Daryl Boston. Further changes are surely on the horizon, and Murray further that retired big league catcher Drew Butera, who served as the Angels catching coach last year, could be added to the Chicago staff in some capacity as well. The changes in the dugout come on the heels of front office shakeup in Chicago. Longtime general manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Kenny Williams were fired over the summer, though the Sox stayed in-house by naming a sistant GM Chris Getz their succe sor and new baseball operations leader. The rookie GM has since as the Sox director of player development. As is the case in the dugout, additional changes in the front office and baseball operations hierarchy can be expected as the ChiSox look to move past a disastrous 2023 campaign and return to relevance in the American League Central. Gaylord Perry Jersey