The Chicago White Sox should be encouraged by the effect Ethan Katz had on Lucas Gioolito.
The Chicago White Sox made a few announcements after the season that sparked different reactions for each one. First, they fired Rick Renteria which was something everyone saw coming. He helped them take the next step but he was clearly not the guy to get them over the World Series hump. On the same day, they announced that Don Cooper was also out as the pitching coach after a very long time. People weren’t expecting it but after thinking about it, it was probably time for a change.
The White Sox hired Ethan Katz to be the new guy a little bit after the former announcements. Katz is a bright young coach that people should be excited about having in the organization. He has helped a lot of current young players develop and become stars in the game. He was previously the assistant pitching coach for the San Fransico Giants during the 2020 season.
Before that job, he helped a lot of other young studs grow their games as pitchers. One of those young pitcher’s name is Lucas Giolito. Katz was Giolito’s high school pitching coach along with other stud pitchers like Max Fried and Jack Flaherty. He clearly knows what he is doing because his resume shows a lot of great talent making impacts at the Major League level in large part to his training.
Giolito received a lot of help from Katz after his awful 2018 season. They worked on a lot of things together and that allowed Giolito to become one of the best pitchers in the entire American League. He is now the ace of the White Sox staff and Katz deserves a lot of credit for helping him get there from being one of the worst pitchers in the MLB.
This is exciting when you think about how Katz might be able to impact other White Sox pitchers. Guys like Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, Garrett Crochet, and Reynaldo Lopez might really benefit from having a guy like this. There is a lot of arm talent there but they need to be helped in taking that next step as starting pitchers. The White Sox have guys like Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn to help them along as well but having a pitching coach like Katz is really nice.
It seems like Katz is genuinely excited to see some of these guys progress. He had some nice things to say about every pitcher he will be working with on the White Sox Talk Podcast a few days ago. Everyone seems to love this guy and the work he did with Giolito should make every White Sox fan excited to think about what he can do with everyone else.