While we’ve received a lot of information about who will be part of the next White Sox coaching staff, little has been reported thus far about the team’s next hitting coach. Prior to this afternoon’s press availability where the White Sox are expected to introduce Pedro Grifol as their next manager, rumors have begun to circulate that a coach from Kansas City will be joining Grifol to be the next White Sox hitting coach.
According to multiple sources, including Royals Farm Report on Twitter, Mike Tosar appears primed to be the next hitting coach for the South Siders. It’s worth noting that the Royals did NOT fire Tosar – they had planned to keep him on the major league staff heading into the 2023 season. Should this report be true, it will be Tosar’s decision to come with Grifol to Chicago.
About Mike Tosar
Tosar was drafted in the 39th round by the Milwaukee Brewers back in 1987. After his playing career ended, he served as a scout and hitting coach for multiple organizations. He started with the Gulf Coast League Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1996) and Princeton Devil Rays (1997-1999), coaching future big leagues Josh Hamilton and Carl Crawford in that time. He would move to the Florida Marlins’ organization as a scout in 2000 and would then become the hitting coach in the Twins’ organization in 2003.
Tosar went on to join the Seattle Mariners in 2006 as a scout and A-ball hitting coach. In 2008, he became the team’s outfield and baserunning coordinator, and from 2009-2012, he served as the team’s lower-level hitting coordinator. The Los Angeles Dodgers would then bring Tosar into their international scouting department from 2012-2019.
It was in 2020 that he joined the Royals as a special assignment hitting coach. After Terry Bradshaw was fired in May of 2022, he would join the major league coaching staff. In 2017, Tosar threw to then-Royal Mike Moustakas in the 2017 Home Run Derby.
With Tosar, the White Sox are once again getting one of the top talents from the Royals’ coaching staff. He and Grifol have been praised for their work with Salvador Perez, M.J. Melendez, Jorge Soler, and Eduardo Escobar during their time with the Royals. In addition, Tosar was one of four Royals coaches mentioned in a May 2022 column that broke down the Royals’ organization overhaul in the hitting development department. You can read that article below:
Some standout quotes from the article above include:
- “And as of the past month, the Royals have hired hitting-development staffers Drew Saylor, Keoni DeRenne and Mike Tosar to work alongside Zumwalt, all of whom have different backgrounds that blend traditional baseball ideology with an understanding of the physics of the baseball swing and technological developments.”
- “Tosar grew up playing alongside Grifol as a youth in Miami. The two coaches communicated, assessed Soler’s situation and formulated a plan, which began with a psychological approach. Once Soler acquired the necessary confidence he could hit for big-time power (like 48 home runs in 2019), the two began working in the cages.”
In addition, Tosar specifically was called out for his work in 2020 with Salvador Perez, helping him to slug .633 in 2020 and .526 from 2020-2022.
Some standout quotes from the article above include:
- “Nearly five days a week, Perez would show up and listen to Tosar, whom the Royals hired in the winter and with whom Jorge Soler had worked in past offseasons. The two discussed what Tosar had seen: At times, Perez would lean on his front side, which would affect his balance and power. If Perez could tighten up his swing, keeping his arms closer to his body, he could do more damage.”
- “Perez would show up to the batting cages five days a week and continue his drills [with Tosar]. After the hitting sessions, he would put on his catcher’s gear and block baseballs with Grifol.”
With Tosar, the White Sox are pulling from some of the best in the Royals’ organization that helped to revamp what were old ideologies that had been holding the Royals back for quite some time following their 2015 World Series Championship. Tosar has also received praise outside of the Royals organization from Eduardo Perez.
We will likely learn more about Tosar’s philosophies if the White Sox do indeed hire him as their next hitting coach. However, based on the fact that Tosar and Grifol are incredibly close, Sox fans should feel pretty confident in this rumor. Given his track record with the Royals, as well as with successful organizations like the Rays and Dodgers, White Sox fans should feel pretty good about the new ideas that are coming into the system.
As more information becomes available, we will continue to provide more updates.
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Featured Image: Mike Tosar (miketosar) / Instagram
We were better than the Royals on offense.
Now we have their offensive staff.
For what reason should we be excited?
https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/team/kansas-city-royals/stats
Not liking this at all.
The Royal record the last several seasons was lackluster. No we the clown show is hiring it’s cast offs? This is a recipe for failure.