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White Sox invite 21 players to Spring Training, announce minor league coaching staffs

The Sox announce their Spring Training invites in time for Sox Fest. Included are 10 free agents and 11 minor leaguers. The Sox also announced their minor league staffs for next season.

USA TODAY Sports

Following tradition, the White Sox have announced their Spring Training invites for players off the 40-man roster in time for Sox Fest. The Sox have officially announce the signings of pitchers Dylan Axelrod, Parker Frazier, Brian Omogrosso, Omar Poveda, Zach Putnam, David Purcey and Mauricio Robles, catcher Hector Gimenez, infielder Alex Liddi and outfielder Denis Phipps. News for most of these have been posted here previously. The only new name that hasn't shown up before is Mauricio Robles.

Along with the free agents, the Sox have invited several of minor leaguers as well.  They include pitchers Chris Bassitt, Chris Beck, MATC-Madison's Cody Winiarski, Scott Snodgress, catchers Miguel Gonzalez, and Kevan Smith, infielders Micah Johnson, Mike McDade and Andy Wilkins, and outfielders Blake Tekotte and Keenyn Walker.

Along with the Spring Training invites, the Sox announced their minor league staffs for the 2014 season.  Most of the changes are the normal shuffling of minor league staff, but with some notable changes.

  • Former Sox Vance Law, who helped coach the Sox during the plague of high school graduations last season, was named the assistant minor league hitting coordinator. 
  • Charles Poe, a Sox draft pick in 1990, becomes the manager at Great Falls.  He was the hitting coach there last year.
  • Finally, Ryan Newman, the manager at Winston-Salem last season, is now the "Assistant Coach" at Charlotte this year.  I've never seen this title in baseball before which is what makes this interesting.  For now, I'll assume this is like a bench coach.