White Sox make history with makeup of staff
New White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, along with assistant coaches Mike Tosar, Eddie Rodriguez and Jose ‘Nachi’ Castro are all Cuban-Americans raised in Miami.
Two former Columbus High teammates — catcher Pedro Grifol and second baseman Mike Tosar — were once so angry at each other that they didn’t speak for a year.
Now, Grifol, 53, is the newly named Chicago White Sox manager, and Tosar, 54, is a key part of his staff as the MLB field coordinator.
In fact, of the nine members on the 2023 White Sox staff — including the manager — four of them are CubanAmericans raised in Miami. The other Miamians are third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez, 63, and hitting coach Jose “Nachi” Castro, 64. Rodriguez played for Miami High, and Castro competed against him at Jackson.
All four men still live within six miles of each other in West Dade/ Kendall. They are so Miami, in fact, that Castro described where Tosar resides this way:
“Near La Carreta, off of Bird Road.”
The rest of Grifol’s staff includes bench coach Charlie Montoyo, firstbase coach Daryl Boston, pitching coach Ethan
Katz, bullpen coach Kurt Hassler and assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson. Boston, Katz and Hassler were holdovers from the previous staff, which had been led by Tony La Russa.
It’s an impressive 2023 staff, including the Puerto Rican-born Montoyo, who was Toronto’s manager the past four years. Montoyo was recommended by ESPN’s Eduardo Perez, who played with Grifol at Florida State.
Montoyo’s experience should be vital for Grifol, who is a rookie MLB manager.
But what jumps out regarding the staff is having 44 percent of it raised in the 305.
Minnesota Twins scout
John Manuel, who was a key writer and historian for Baseball America for 21 years, was asked about the White Sox quartet of Miamians.
“That kind of familiarity on a coaching staff strikes me as extremely rare,” Manuel told The Herald. “It should make communication and trust easier, and those are two key elements on a coaching staff.”
Communication between Grifol and Tosar has almost always been great. They’ve known each other for more than 40 years, and they started competing with each other in Miami on the St. Peter & Paul middle-school team.
In 1986, they led Columbus to the Class 4A state semifinals, where the Explorers lost to Gonzalez Tate, 10-2.
Their friendship was tested when Tosar signed with the Miami Hurricanes, and Grifol chose their biggest rival, the Florida State Seminoles.
Things came to a head on May 3, 1991, when the teams met in Coral Gables for a regular-season game televised by ESPN.
Tosar that year was using a bat with a flat handle.
“I showed it to [Canes coach] Ron Fraser, and he took it to some umpires before the season,” Tosar said. “The umpires said that as long as the barrel was round, there’s nothing wrong.”
Tosar went 3-for-3 — with three line-drives — in his first game using that bat, and he wasn’t going to let it go.
But just prior to that ESPN game, a rival bat company, Easton, tried to get Tosar to switch to one of their bats. The Easton representative was keen on getting their bats shown on ESPN, but Tosar declined.
Unfortunately for Tosar and the Canes, that Easton
rep told FSU coach Mike Martin that the flathandle bat was illegal.
Armed with that information, FSU waited to see if Tosar were to get an important hit, which brings us back to May 3. With the score tied 2-2 in the eighth inning, Tosar stroked a bases-loaded double.
That’s when Grifol pounced.
“Pedro picks the bat up, shows it to [the umpires],” Tosar said. “They point to second and ring me up — inning’s over.
“I didn’t talk to Pedro for a year after that.”
What finally revived their friendship was a conversation.
“I still remember his words,” Tosar said. “He said: ‘Anything goes between the lines.’ As soon as he said that, I understood.
“As a catcher, Pedro was savvy with his pitchcalling. He was always looking for a quick out.”
Three decades later, the White Sox hired Grifol — who spent the past three seasons as the Kansas City Royals’ bench coach — for that same attention to detail.
Grifol, who inherits a team that went 81-81 last season, had interviewed with seven MLB teams over the years before finally getting a chance in Chicago.
White Sox general manager Rick Hahn and team owner Jerry Reinsdorf allowed Grifol large latitude in picking his staff, which is rare, especially for a rookie manager.
“That’s why I love this [White Sox] job so much,” Grifol said. “To be able to bring my three boys [Tosar, Castro and Rodriguez] and add Charlie is a blessing.
“Jerry Reinsdorf is probably the best owner in the game when it comes to trusting and empowering people.”
The White Sox trust Grifol because of a resume that includes winning a World Series ring as a Royals assistant coach in 2015. Grifol has also served in numerous other baseball capacities, including scout, director of player development, hitting coach, catching coach, bench coach, manager in the minors and manager in the winter leagues.
Grifol interviewed with two other teams this offseason — the Marlins and Royals — before landing with the White Sox.
In Chicago, Grifol’s roster includes three Cuban-born starters: third baseman Yoan Moncada, center fielder Luis Robert and ex-Canes catcher Yasmani Grandal. A fourth Cuban-born starter, first baseman Jose Abreu, left Chicago after last season, signing with Houston.
As for the Cuban-Americans on Grifol’s staff, they each have had a fascinating journey to arrive in Chicago.
Castro, for example, played 14 years as a minor-league infielder — including a decade in Triple-A — without ever reaching the majors.
In fact, none of the four Miamian coaches on Chicago’s staff ever reached the majors as players, even though they had distinguished careers.
Castro, for example, had his number “9” retired at Jackson High, skipping college ball to sign with the Phillies as a 27th-round draft pick. He finally made it to the majors in 2008 — as an interim hitting coach for Seattle.
He returned to the majors as an assistant with the Cubs in 2014 and for the past eight years served on the Braves’ staff, winning a World Series ring with Atlanta in 2021.
“Relentless,” Castro said of his coaching career. “I keep fighting.”
In 2008, Grifol was Seattle’s director of player development, and that’s where he first started working with Castro.
“The White Sox hired the right guy,” Castro said of Grifol. “He’s very smart and detailed — a hard worker. He gets the best out of players.”
Of the four Miamian coaches, Castro and Rodriguez are the two who were born in Cuba.
Rodriguez arrived in the U.S. with his family at age 6, living in Ohio and New Jersey before settling in Miami four years later.
After starting as an infielder at Miami High and Miami Dade College, Rodriguez was a firstround pick of the Baltimore Orioles in the secondary phase of the 1978 MLB Draft. It was a dream come true, especially since Rodriguez grew up across the street from the old Miami Stadium, which was the spring training home of the Orioles.
“I was a bat boy for the Orioles,” Rodriguez said. “I grew up admiring guys like Frank Robinson and Boog Powell.”
In 2004, Rodriguez served as Robinson’s bench coach for the Montreal Expos.
“Full-circle,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s playing career got as high as Double-A in 1984.
Rodriguez finally made it to the majors in 1995 as the Angels’ third-base coach. In 2000, Rodriguez served as Tommy Lasorda’s bench coach when Team USA beat Cuba for the Olympic gold medal. The next year, Rodriguez was the firstbase coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks as they beat the Yankees in the World Series.
In 2007, he served as manager in Seattle’s minor-league system — for the Double-A West Tennessee affiliate — which is when he started working with Grifol.
“For [Grifol] to handpick us is rare,” said Rodriguez, who was the minor-league field coordinator for Kansas City the past three years. “But I also know what we bring to the table as coaches.”
Like Rodriguez and Grifol, Tosar comes to the White Sox from the Royals, where he served the past three years as a special-assignment hitting coach. He served in the same role with the Dodgers from 2012 to 2019, leaving that organization one year before they won the World Series.
“It’s hard to say that [coaching in the majors with Grifol] is not a dream come true, because it is,” said Tosar, who is the one of the four men in this story who has yet to win a World Series ring. “It’s a blessing to work every day with your best friend and guys you trust.
“Pedro is so well-prepared. He holds people accountable, great communicator, well-rounded and an outside-the-box thinker. He’s always looking to improve.”
It’s obvious that Grifol, Tosar, Rodriguez and Castro are loyal to each other. But they are also loyal to their families.
Grifol, for example, has been married to Ali for 37 years.
“She says, ‘I married Pedro. But I also married baseball,’ ” Grifol said of his wife. “You have to have that attitude to survive our lifestyle.
“But she knows the game. When I get home, there are usually 20 text messages from her. ‘Why did you bring that pitcher in?’
“I tell her, ‘I should hire you as my bench coach.’ ”
If so, that would make it five Miami coaches on the White Sox staff.