GLENDALE, Ariz. – The White Sox entered Wednesday’s split-squad action ranked 20th in slugging percentage among Major League teams during Spring Training action, 24th in OPS, 25th in runs scored, 28th in average and 27th in on-base percentage.
What do these numbers mean ultimately for the South Siders? Well, not very much during Cactus League action, even though they follow a 2024 season in which the offense struggled mightily. Ryan Fuller, who is in place as the new director of hitting, understands the need for results, but he also has added an overarching voice and philosophy in searching for that improvement.
“Consistency is always going to be key and that’s one of the hardest things to do as a hitting coach,” Fuller told MLB.com in a conversation prior to Wednesday’s action. “There’s going to be nights where you run into the Dodgers rolling out ace after ace, the best bullpen guys. Those nights, scoring four and getting a win is a great night.
“There’s other nights where you go out and score 18 runs. But the ability to show there are capabilities of us stringing together really long innings, putting together really great at-bats, controlling the zone, hitting balls hard all over, to see that, then you can point to it and say, ‘Hey we’ve done it. We can do it even more consistently.’”
Marcus Thames returns for a second year as White Sox hitting coach, with Joel McKeithan joining as the new assistant hitting coach. Fuller serves on the offensive side in the same capacity as Brian Bannister does with pitching. Bannister has made a major impact on the organization over just a short time, and Fuller is getting the same sort of early rave reviews.
“Yeah, he’s been great,” said manager Will Venable of Fuller. “Just had a long talk with him and some of the things he’s been seeing and what we can do better in camp. He was a teacher and just has that way about him. He understands how players learn, how to present information and how to organize thoughts. He’s been a great addition.”
“I give a lot of credit to both of those individuals,” said director of player development Paul Janish on Fuller and Bannister. “To come in and upgrade the macro view for Ryan Fuller, on the offensive side for the organization, his relationship building has been just second to none up to this point. Obviously he has great content with regards to offensive stuff.”
So what is that content preached by Fuller? The focus starts at consistency of message through working daily with the coaches, running from Single-A Kannapolis up to the Major Leagues, and everyone feeling they are on the same team. It’s not the Minor Leagues and then the Major Leagues.
“We have the same consistent philosophy of controlling the zone, contact in zone, hard impact, hard balls on a line all across the field and the way we train. The way we gameplan,” Fuller said. “Systematizing it where we are all preaching the same message.
“A lot of work to be done, but getting everybody on the same page has been a ton of fun. It’s been encouraging to see guys make progress. You can’t see what’s going on in the back fields, but that work that’s being put in every day, it’s a ton of fun when you can say, ‘Hey look, it's transferring over to the field out there at game time.’”
Fuller talked about work being put in and progress being made on players from Luis Robert Jr. to Colson Montgomery to Chase Meidroth. But above the overall talent, Fuller has been very happy with the work ethic and the quest for new information from his charges. It made his move to the White Sox a relatively seamless one.
“People are really excited about going about their business. Players are really engaged in what we are bringing to them. It’s been really smooth, so far, excited about the work we have to do,” Fuller said. “But everyone is on the same page and ready to work every day.
“They want to go to that next level. If there’s a new drill, if there’s a new machine with Trajekt, something challenging, we are wearing that stuff out. These guys want to get better, they know they need to make adjustments and are getting after it every day.”