White Sox Promote Familiar Faces For 2025 Player Development Staff

The White Sox have officially announced their player development staff for the 2025 season after shuffling several coaches around at the minor league level.

White Sox director of player development Paul Janish, who is entering his second season with the club, was tasked with filling out the structure of the organization’s minor-league operations and player development system.

Before coming to Chicago, Janish spent two seasons as the head baseball coach for Rice University, where he helped 14 players get drafted in the MLB’s first-year player draft, five of which were selected inside the first ten rounds.

During his first season in the White Sox organization, the Class AA Birmingham Barons and Class A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers reached the playoffs, which marked the first time two White Sox affiliates qualified for the playoffs in over a decade. After trading Garrett Crochet for a package deal that included catcher Kyle Teel, and outfielder Braden Montgomery, the White Sox farm system now boasts six of the top 60 prospects in baseball.

Reshuffling Coaching

Former White Sox pitcher Sergio Santos will return to the organization as the manager for Class AAA Charlotte after guiding the Barons to a 72-66 record and the Southern League Championship. Guillermo Quiroz will replace Santos in Birmingham while Patrick Leyland will manage Class A Winston Salem and Chad Pinder Class A Kannapolis. Daniel Gonzaelez will serve as the manager for the White Sox Arizona Complex League team.

Quiroz previously managed the Winston-Salem dash from 2023-24 before getting promoted to Double-A. Meanwhile, Leyland will take Quiroz’s place in Winston-Salem after helping lead Kannapolis to the Carolina League Championship series. Pinder does not have any previous minor-league managing experience but does have seven years of MLB playing experience under his belt. The 32-year-old spent seven seasons with the Oakland A’s, slashing .242/.294/.417 with 62 homers and 197 RBIs. Gonzalez will be entering his third season at the helm of the White Sox ACL squad. Mike Gellinger, who was part of the organization’s player development system last season, will serve as Pinder’s bench coach.

The White Sox will also return several coordinators from last season including fielding coordinator Ryan Newman, pitching Matt Zaleski, assistant pitching Curt Hasler, hitting Alan Zinter, assistant hitting Danny Santin, and catching Julio Mosquera.

Doug Sisson also returned to the player development system. Sission previously served in the White Sox player development system as a field coordinator, a role he had held for seven seasons, before getting promoted to the White Sox bench coach after manager Pedro Grifol, bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third base coach Eddie Rodriguez, and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar were fired.

One of the biggest offseason additions was former Angels manager Phil Nevin, who will serve as a Special Assistant to Player Development. Nevin was once considered a finalist for the White Sox managerial job but was passed over for Will Venable. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Nevin will be deployed in a variety of player development roles which includes being involved in amateur scouting for the 2025 draft.

The entire development staff is below:

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT STAFF

Director of Player Development: Paul Janish
Director of Minor League Administration: Kathy Potoski
Senior Advisor to Pitching: Brian Bannister
Director of Hitting: Ryan Fuller
Assistant Director of Pitching: Rod Larson
Assistant International Director/Player Development Latin America Operations: Louis Silverio
Manager of Player Development/International Operations: Grant Flick
Manager of International Player Development/Education: Erin Santana
Special Assistant to Player Development: Phil Nevin
Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President/General Manager: Doug Sisson