New pitching coach Katz has connection to Giolito
The coaching staff of new manager Tony La Russa is starting to come together.
Sources confirmed reports Thursday that Giants assistant pitching coach Ethan Katz will be the replacement for Don Cooper as White Sox pitching coach. Katz, 37, was right- hander Lucas Giolito’s pitching coach at Harvard- Westlake ( Calif.) High School on a staff that included future major- league standouts Max Fried and Jack Flaherty.
After coaching in the Angels’ and Mariners’ minor- league systems, Katz was hired by the Giants as assistant minor- league pitching coordinator in 2019. He was promoted to assistant pitching coach last December.
The Sox are expected to announce full coaching- staff appointments next week. Hitting coach Frank Menechino is expected back, while third- base coach Nick Capra will not return. Assistant hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh was named the Tigers’ hitting coach on newly hired manager AJ Hinch’s staff last week.
Bullpen coach Curt Hasler, bench coach Joe McEwing and first- base coach Daryl Boston also were expected to be considered for La Russa’s staff.
Katz represents a distinct pivot away from Cooper, 64, who had been in the organization since 1988 and was pitching coach for 18 seasons, and for La Russa, who had talked to his lifelong pitching coach Dave Duncan from his days with the Sox, Athletics and Cardinals about returning to join him.
Katz helped the Giants shift to increased usage of advanced data on the major- league and minor- league levels, and according to the San Jose Mercury News, Katz made an impression with many of the Giants’ young relief pitchers and also worked closely with starters in the bullpen preparing for games.
Sox to ESPN 1000
ESPN Chicago and the Sox jointly announced a multiyear agreement naming ESPN 1000 as the team’s flagship radio station. Sox games will air on ESPN 1000, the team’s fourth radio home since 2015, beginning with the team’s first game of the 2021 Cactus League season on Feb. 27.
The agreement includes all Sox regularseason and postseason games as well as select spring- training games.
“The White Sox are an extremely entertaining, talented baseball team with an incredibly bright future, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to bring the White Sox to ESPN 1000 fans,” ESPN Chicago market manager Mike Thomas said.
Brooks Boyer, Sox chief revenue and marketing officer, said analyst Darrin Jackson will return to the booth and that Andy Masur, who handled play- by- play duty in place of the late Ed Farmer, is a candidate to return.
The Sox have bounced around on radio after WSCR’s contract with the Sox expired after the 2015 season. WLS- 890 was to be the new Sox flagship station from 2016 through 2021, but WLS owner Cumulus Media field for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2017 and entered into a restructuring agreement.
The Bankruptcy Court permitted Cumulus and WLS to end the agreement with the Sox, and WGN became the flagship in February 2018.