Chris Getz made his first major moves as the White Sox new General Manager and it appears to be a good one. On Tuesday Scott Merkin and Bob Nightengale reported that the White Sox are expected to hire Josh Barfield from the Diamondbacks, Brain Bannister from the Giants, and Gene Watson from the Royals.
Barfield will serve as the assistant GM while Bannister will focus on pitching and Watson player development. These are excellent hires by Getz, who is clearly making an effort to bring in some outside ideas to help the organization. The biggest gem of the three is Barfield.
Barfield has spent the past eight years in the Diamondbacks front office. The 40-year-old previously served as the Arizona Diamondbacks farm director. He was hired in 2016 as a scout and quickly worked his way up the ranks. He was promoted to farm director in 2019 and has held the title for the last five seasons.
Like Getz, Barfield is a younger executive who was also a former player. Barfield spent four seasons in the MLB. The Venezuelan infielder was drafted by the Padres in the fourth round of the 2001 MLB amateur draft. He played one season with the Padres before getting traded to Cleveland. He spent his final three seasons there playing in 159 games, most of which game at second base.
Barfield was a career .264/.295/.375 hitter with a 2.6 WAR, 112 RBIs, 16 home runs, and 35 stolen bases in 309 games in the majors. His best season was his rookie year in San Diego when he batted .280 with 58 RBIs, 21 stolen bases and 13 home runs in 150 games. He retired in 2012 after playing on a minor league deal in Baltimore.
During Barfield’s time as a farm director in Arizona, the Diamondbacks developed names like Jordan Lawyer, Alek Thomas, and Corbin Carroll. He was also overseeing the development of top 100 prospects Druw Jones and Brandon Pfaadt. The Diamondbacks farm system was ranked the third-best in baseball at the start of the season by MLB Pipeline and has been a top ten farm system for the last several seasons.
For a White Sox team that has been stuck in their mediocre ways, Barfield will bring in a fresh perspective. He has a more modern and analytical approach to the game unlike what the White Sox had under Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn.
