Just weeks after being let go by the White Sox, former hitting coach Marcus Thames has found a new home in the AL Central Division.
The Kansas City Royals announced Monday that they have hired Marcus Thames as their hitting coach. Thames was among four members of the Chicago White Sox coaching staff who were not retained after the season, joining pitching coach Ethan Katz, first base coach Jason Bourgeois, and catching coach Drew Butera.
The White Sox turned to former Marlins assistant hitting coach Derek Shoman to replace Marcus Thames as their new hitting coach.
Thames joined the White Sox coaching staff in before the 2024 season, replacing Jose Castro as hitting coach, marking the team’s third hitting coach in as many seasons. It also marked Thames’s fourth team in four consecutive seasons.
Last season, the White Sox offense ranked 27th in runs scored and 23rd in home runs with 165. However, the team made notable progress in plate discipline, ranking 18th in MLB with 498 walks and sitting near the middle of the league in strikeouts at 16th.
Before joining the White Sox Thames previously served as the Los Angeles Angels’ hitting coach. Under Thames, the Halos also improved their walk rate from 7.5% to 8.4% and lowered their strikeout rate from 25.7% to 24.8%.
Thames played a decade in the MLB as an outfielder, hitting .246/.309/.485 with 115 home runs 306 RBIs and a 105 OPS+ across ten seasons. He began his career with the Yankees but spent the bulk of his time in Detroit, where he played six seasons. After leaving Detroit in 2009, Thames returned to New York for another season before finishing his career with the Dodgers in 2011.
After hanging up his cleats, he broke into the coaching ranks in the Yankees system. Eventually, he was promoted to lead hitting coach in 2017. In his four years in the Bronx, the Yankees ranked in the top five in home runs three times. They also ranked in the top ten in OBP all four years he was wearing pinstripes.
He served as the Miami Marlins’ hitting coach in 2022 before joining the Angels. Both of those managers were dismissed after Thames’s first year on the job, while Grifol was let go midway through the White Sox’s 2024 season. However, White Sox manager Will Venable retained him for another season before the organization decided to make sweeping changes to the coaching staff.
While the Royals hired one of the White Sox’s former coaches, the South Siders brought in Zach Bove, Kansas City’s former assistant pitching coach, to serve as their new pitching coach.
