The Chicago White Sox are shaking up their coaching staff.
On Tuesday the team cut ties with hitting coach Jose Castro and first base coach Daryl Boston, according to a report from Daryl Van Scouwen. Assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson will reassigned to the minor leagues. This comes after a similar report announced that bullpen coach Curt Hasler would also be moved to a role in the minor leagues.
Daryl Boston
Daryl Boston was the longest-tenured of the bunch and good friends with the recently fired Ken Williams. The 2023 season marked his 11th as the White Sox first base coach. Before the start of the season, Pedro Grifol cited Boston’s relationship with players when asked about the decision to keep him on the staff. However given some of the reports that came out about the lack of accountability in the locker room, those relationships did little to help Grifol stabilize things.
Boston was previously in charge of baserunning instruction, but after a 2022 season filled with an abundance of base running blunders, he shifted his focus to the outfield and allowed bench coach Charlie Montoyo to take over baserunning instruction.
The 59-year-old was in the White Sox player development system from 1998-2012, including 12 as the minor league outfield instructor. Before getting hired by the White Sox, he was a player-coach with Regina in the Independent Prairie League in 1996.
Jose Castro
Castro previously served as the Atlanta Braves assistant hitting coach for the last eight years, including the 2021 World Series team, before joining Pedro Grifol’s staff. The Braves offense ranked second in the National League in home runs in 2021 and first in 2022. That did not translate over to the White Sox who ranked 20th in the MLB with 171 home runs. However, this was an improvement over their 2022 total of 149.
Former Braves third baseman Chris Johnson served as Castro’s assistant hitting coach.
Castro is a former infielder who played in the minor leagues for 14 seasons from 1977-1990. He was never able to make it to the big leagues. Upon retirement, he became a hitting coach for the Montreal Expos organization in 2003, then got hired to be the hitting coach for the San Diego Padres Triple-A affiliate in 2005, the Portland Beavers. He stayed there for two seasons until he was named the roving minor league hitting instructor for the entire Seattle Mariners organization in 2007, then promoted to the minor league hitting coordinator in 2009. On August 9, 2010, Castro was announced as from hitting coach to the interim manager of the Tacoma Rainiers.
Chris Johnson
Johnson’s demotion comes after he was he was promoted from Triple-A before the start of the season. The 38-year-old was hired after serving as the hitting coach for the Charlotte Knights.
During his lone season in Charlotte, the Knight’s offense ranked in the top ten of the International League in home runs (177), RBIs (685), batting average (.258), and slugging percentage (.418)
Johnson played eight seasons in the MLB from 2009-2016. During his career, he batted .275 with 63 home runs and 339 RBIs. It is still unclear where he will be reassigned to in the organization, but it will likely be a return to Triple-A Charlotte.
Curt Hasler
Hasler has been with the organization for 33 years and just wrapped up his seventh season on the major league staff.
He pitched at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and was eventually drafted by the White Sox in the 21st round of the 1987 MLB Draft.
He first joined the organization as a coach after being hired as the Class A Sarasota pitching coach in 1991. During his tenure in the White Sox player development system, he has overseen the development of future major leaguers Chad Bradford, Mark Buehrle, Aaron Bummer, Matt Guerrier, and Boone Logan.
The former Bradley University pitcher oversaw the first no-hitter in Southern League history as a pitching coach of the Class AA Birmingham Barons in 2001. The White Sox have yet to announce where Hasler will be reassigned.
