The White Sox have officially named Ryan Fuller as the organization’s director of hitting.
The announcement comes a week after the Chicago Sun-Times’ Daryl Van Scouwhen reported that White Sox general manager Chris Getz had hired the Orioles former hitting coach.
Fuller will serve a similar role as Brian Bannister, who was named the senior advisor to pitching last year. Bannister assisted pitching coach Ethan Katz as well as other minor-league pitchers and staff across the organization. Fuller will now do the same from the offensive side.
The White Sox offense could certainly use the help. Last season their offense ranked last in the MLB in runs scored (507), hits (1187) batting average (.221), home runs (133), on-base percentage (.278), and slugging percentage (.340).
Fuller spent the last three seasons as the Orioles co-hitting coach. He initially joined the Orioles organization in 2019 as their minor league hitting coordinator. In 2024 Orioles bats accounted for the second most homers in the MLB (235) while also collecting the third most extra-base hits (530) and the third-highest slugging percentage (.435). The Orioles’ offense also ranked inside the top seven in the MLB in runs scored (4th, 786), RBIs (4th 759), and batting average (7th, .250).
However, Baltimore’s bats cooled off in the second half of the season and were only able to scratch across one run in the AL Wild Card Series. As a result, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde announced that Fuller and co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte would not be returning to the team in 2025.
Fuller had the opportunity to work with some of the top prospects in baseball during his time in Baltimore, including three finalists for AL Rookie of the Year, Colton Cowser, Gunner Henderson, and Adley Rutschman. In Chicago, Fuller will have another opportunity to help some young talent grow as more and more of the White Sox top prospects graduate to the MLB level.
