Joel McKeithan’s Cardinals Move Ends a Six-Year White Sox Coaching Drought

Joel McKeithan’s move from the White Sox to the Cardinals is a small staffing change with a bigger meaning for Chicago: after six years without losing a coach to another team, the club has produced a staff member another organization wants to install in a leading role. Ryan Fuller anticipated that possibility. Back in June, the White Sox hitting coach said he had to treat his coaching group like a farm system, preparing for staff members to earn promotions elsewhere.

That idea now faces its first clear test. McKeithan, Chicago’s assistant hitting coach, is headed to St. Louis to become the Cardinals’ hitting coach, according to Robert Murray. He replaces Brant Brown, whom the Cardinals let go after his second season with the club.

The St. Louis Cardinals are hiring Joel McKeithan as hitting coach, sources say. McKeithan was most recently with the White Sox as assistant hitting coach.

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) November 4, 2026

The change gives McKeithan a larger job and leaves Chicago with an immediate opening on Fuller’s staff. It also offers a useful measure of how the White Sox’s coaching rebuild is being viewed beyond the organization: at least one coach has developed enough to attract a team looking for a new hitting voice. One hire doesn’t establish a pattern, but it does make Fuller’s farm-system comparison more than a theoretical exercise.

A rare departure, with one footnote

McKeithan is the first White Sox coach in six years to be hired away in a move that qualifies as a promotion. The last departure that came readily to mind in the source account was Juan Nieves, who moved from Don Cooper’s bullpen coach to pitching coach with the Red Sox after the 2012 season. There was, however, a later example that keeps the gap from stretching to 14 years.

Scott Coolbaugh spent the 2020 season as the White Sox’s assistant hitting coach under Frank Menechino before the Tigers hired him as their primary hitting coach. That season was only 60 games, and restrictions on access limited opportunities for coaches to speak with reporters. As a result, Coolbaugh’s short stay made little public impression, even though his move was another case of a White Sox assistant earning a bigger position elsewhere.

The distinction matters because coaching turnover isn’t always a clean sign of progress. A move into a bigger role suggests another club sees value in a coach’s work; a lateral move, or a job change after a coach has been let go, says less about whether the previous staff was developing sought-after talent. McKeithan’s appointment is a straightforward example of the first kind.

Close calls and different kinds of exits

There have been near misses in the years between those hires. Grady Sizemore joined the Twins as a first-base coach after finishing the 2024 season as the White Sox’s interim manager. But although he had worked as an offensive coordinator at the start of that season, a uniformed role on Will Venable’s staff wasn’t guaranteed. The Twins had an available position, and Sizemore took it.

Joe McEwing’s move to St. Louis offers another qualification. The White Sox let him go after the 2022 season, Tony La Russa’s final year with Chicago. The Cardinals hired him in January to replace bench coach Matt Holliday, who stepped down unexpectedly. McEwing had landed a new position, but because Chicago had already released him to make room for Pedro Grifol’s staff choices, it’s difficult to count the Cardinals’ decision as a direct loss from a coach the White Sox still employed.

Beyond those cases, the staff movement described has mostly involved lateral changes or setbacks for coaches the club let go. Ethan Katz, for instance, regained a pitching coach role with the Rockies after a season as an assistant. Those outcomes are different from McKeithan’s: the Cardinals are bringing him in to lead their hitting work, not simply giving him another job on a new staff.

Fuller’s next decision

McKeithan may not be the only White Sox coach linked to another opening. Walker McKinven interviewed for the Mariners’ managerial vacancy, which went to Jason Kanzler, and his name has also appeared on speculative lists connected to Houston’s opening. Those possibilities are separate from a completed hire, but they underscore the staffing question Chicago now faces: how much of its coaching group will attract interest as other teams fill roles?

The immediate task is replacing McKeithan. Fuller can look within the staff, following the development model he described, or bring in someone from outside and add a different perspective. Either route will reveal something about the White Sox’s priorities: continuity in the approach they’ve built, or a new voice for a group that has begun drawing attention.

For now, the clearest takeaway is that Chicago’s coaching work has produced a departure the club didn’t choose. If the White Sox’s rebuilding effort holds, McKeithan may be the first coach they need to replace ahead of schedule in a while. The next hire will show whether Fuller’s coaching pipeline can replenish the staff as quickly as it helped McKeithan move up.