Chicago White Sox make baffling front office hire

The Chicago White Sox have found a new director of player development.

With Chris Getz, who previously served in that role, promoted to being the general manager of the White Sox, the team was in a need to fill a position in the front office that had been a failure under Getz.

The hire that the White Sox made was equally discouraging.

In a press release on Thursday, the White Sox announced that they have named former Major League Baseball player Paul Janish as their director of player development.

Janish had a 9-year career in the Major Leagues with stops with the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, and Atlanta Braves. Janish was nothing spectacular as a Major League Baseball player as he had a career slash line of .212/.280/.284 in 473 games played.

The Chicago White Sox have a new director of player development as former Major League player Paul Janish was hired by the team.

It should be worth noting that Janish has no experience in Major League Baseball in terms of working in a front office or coaching staff. Recently, Janish was serving as an assistant baseball coach with Rice University. In case you’re wondering, Rice had a record of 21-37 during the 2023 collegiate season and 17-39 during the 2022 campaign.

This strange choice for a hire should not come as a surprise to White Sox fans. A large part of the reason why Getz was promoted despite his mediocre playing career was because team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf believes there is value in having former players hold key positions in the team’s front office regardless of how good they were.

In all honesty, there should not be confidence in the White Sox baseball operations. Getz failed in his original role with the team’s front office and is now the top voice in the organization. As for Getz’s old position, it is now filled by a former Major League player who was bad in both his role as a player and as an assistant coach at the college level.