A coach from the previous White Sox major league staff has found a new home.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Blum, the Los Angeles Angels have hired Jerry Narron as a catching coordinator in their minor-league player development.
Narron, 66, spent the previous two seasons as a major league instructor and was the first to be dedicated to catching on a White Sox staff. As previously pointed out by The Athletic’s James Fegan, Narron is attributed not only to Seby Zavala’s receiving improvements in 2022 but also the proposal for Yasmani Grandal to catch from a one-knee stance following his recent injuries. This adaptation will likely continue in 2023 and beyond for Grandal, who began using it more frequently with minor-league catching instructor Julio Mosquera during his rehab stints.
Perhaps even more notably, Narron’s calligraphy for lineup cards earned him continued praise during his tenure.
Along with the White Sox, Narron has been with six other organizations during his 28 years working on a major-league staff. Here’s a timeline of his coaching career:
- 1993: Bench Coach with the Baltimore Orioles
- 1994: Third Base Coach with the Baltimore Orioles
- 1995-01: Third Base Coach with the Texas Rangers
- 2003: Bench Coach with the Boston Red Sox
- 2004-05: Bench Coach with the Cincinnati Reds
- 2011-15: Bench Coach with the Milwaukee Brewers
- 2017-19: Bench Coach with the Arizona D’Backs
- 2020: Bench Coach with the Boston Red Sox
- 2021-22: Major League Instructor with the Chicago White Sox
Just yesterday, the White Sox announced their 2023 major league coaching staff that featured a mix of some new names and some old. Though Narron doesn’t have a direct successor, Mike Tosar is probably the next closest thing from a title perspective as he was named a “major league field coordinator.” That being said, his role isn’t catching specific and seems to lean more heavily to the hitting side of things, as described by new manager and once Royals catching instructor Pedro Grifol on Tuesday.
“It’s almost probably a two-and-a-half-headed monster when it comes to the hitting. I just didn’t want to make [Tosar] a hitting coach because he’s got a lot of value to the bunting game, he’s got a lot of value to base running. Certainly, he’s got a lot of value to hitting and infield. We’re going to use these guys maybe in a different way than most teams use it — I’m not sure what other teams are doing. But we’ve got some versatility on this staff, and we’ll cross-pollinate at some point every day when it comes to our staff members.”
via James Fegan – The Athletic
For a closer look at the revamped White Sox coaching staff, click here.
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Featured Photo: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
