Buddy Bell Becomes White Sox Assistant GM

“We’re going to be using aliases on this job.”

Buddy Bell, a man familiar to those of us that have paid attention to White Sox operations, as he’s been a part of the White Sox staff for 9 seasons, most recently as Vice President of Player Development. Since everybody in the organization is changing titles, Bell is getting in on the action with a promotion and title change of his own. For the foreseeable future Buddy Bell will be able to look in the mirror, wink (with a finger-point as well if he’s feeling particularly good that day), and say, “hey there, Mr. Assistant GM, lookin’ mighty fine.”

As the new Assistant General Manager Bell will assist with roster and staffing decisions as they pertain to the major league club and continue to go on scouting assignments. He will keep the responsibility of overseeing the player development system.

In the past we’ve looked to Bell to comment on the progress of individuals within the White Sox minor league system and it looks like that much won’t change. He may have more of a say in what happens to those players once they’re “ready” but largely it seems that his duties have expanded rather than altogether changed.

Bell has some history as a manager in the majors but has expressed that he has no desire to ever return to that. It’s no wonder really. His stints with the Tigers, the Rockies and the Royals resulted in some pretty awful finishes. No Buddy Bell lead team has finished above .500 and he was at the head of a Tigers team that lost 109 games in 1996 (not even their worst finish in recent vintage). Basically, the talent he’s overseen in the minor league ranks doesn’t differ greatly to the talent he was dealt during his big league managerial tenure.