White Sox Rumors: Ethan Katz is returning as the pitching coach

The Chicago White Sox are going to hire Pedro Grifol to be their new manager. He will replace Tony La Russa in 2023 and take over the most talented roster in the league that needed a new manager. A lot of White Sox fans have a bad outlook after 2022 but Grifol can turn that around.

He seems to be off to a good start though because there are reports that Ethan Katz is going to return as the pitching coach of this team. That is really good news for anyone that wants to see the pitching staff continue to do well.

Katz hasn’t helped every pitcher work out as we all know how bad Joe Kelly, Dallas Keuchel, and Jake Diekman were but those were veterans coming to this team from somewhere else. Katz has mostly done a good job with the young guys who he can help mold.

Lucas Giolito regressed under him in 2022 but Katz gets all of the credit for his ascension in 2019, 2020, and 2021. He is perfectly capable of helping him get back to that level again with some more tweaks during the offseason.

We’ve seen Giolito be in the Cy Young conversation in the past but Dylan Cease will likely have an even higher finish. He should come in second place only behind Justin Verlander. Katz deserves a lot of credit for helping Cease go from a great prospect to a great player.

The Chicago White Sox are making the smart decision to bring back Ethan Katz.

There are also a few young guys that are in the spot that Cease was in before the 2022 season which means that they have an incredible amount of talent but need to figure out how to put it all together over a whole season.

Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet lead that pack. Kopech had moments this year where he looked just as good as Cease. Crochet missed the year coming back from Tommy John so he is a little behind but expect Katz to have a great plan for both of them.

These are just a few examples of the many ways that Ethan Katz has and will continue to help this White Sox team.

The pitching staff is lucky that Grifol is going to lead things with Katz right there with him. It is going to be very interesting watching Katz work with a manager like Grifol as opposed to Tony La Russa. Based on that, things should go a lot smoother for them.