Less than two weeks after informing assistant hitting coach Ben Rosenthal that he wouldn’t return in 2026, the Red Sox have promoted from within to fill that vacant spot on Alex Cora’s coaching staff.

A source confirmed a report from The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey that John Soteropulos, who was serving as the organization’s hitting coordinator, will join the big league staff as an assistant hitting coach next season. Soteropulos and Dillon Lawson will be the two assistants on hitting coach Pete Fatse’s staff. At this time, no other changes are anticipated when it comes to the coaching staff, though bench coach Ramón Vázquez did interview for the Twins’ managerial opening.

Soteropulos has been with the organization since January 2023. He spent that year as a roving complex hitting coach before being promoted to an organization-wide hitting coordinator in December 2023. The 32-year-old is a Cal product who played baseball in Berkeley from 2013 to 2015 and got into the coaching ranks as an employee of Driveline Baseball (as a business associate and hitting trainer) from 2019 to 2023.

The Red Sox haven’t finalized new contracts with every member of the coaching staff but the expectation remains that everyone else, including game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek, will return in the same roles they served in 2025.