The White Sox are adding another staffer from a familiar AL East team.
As first reported by Andy Kostka, Orioles assistant hitting coach and upper-level hitting coordinator Sherman Johnson is joining the organization as a minor league hitting coordinator. His hire comes a year after former Baltimore co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller was brought on to serve as the White Sox’s Director of Hitting.
Johnson, 35, played collegiately at Florida State and had an 11-year professional career that included a brief MLB stint for the Angels in 2018. After retiring as a player, he began coaching in the Orioles system as the Double-A Bowie Baysox hitting coach in 2023. The following season, he was promoted to upper-level hitting coordinator, a role he continued in 2025 while also earning a spot on Baltimore’s Major League staff as an assistant hitting coach.
In a March interview with Ira Schoffel of Warchant.com, Johnson recalled his quick transition from playing to coaching.
The interview process was really cool with Baltimore. They did a really good job, in my opinion. And then the next week, I was going to like an MLB diversity pipeline thing for coaches and scouts. Tyrone Brooks, shout out to him, and Bobby Scales and Bo Porter hooked me up with that. So I was in that program … and one of the guys that was coaching there, Nic Wilson, was with the Rockies. And I didn’t know Nic, but we have a lot of mutual friends. So we were chopping it up, and he was just like, “Hey man, you just got done playing. What do you think about hitting? What do you think about how people train? How would you train? How would you go about this? How would you game-plan?” And I just started kind of telling him. I’m not very shy (laughing), as you might know. So I just started telling him.
And as I’m telling him, a lot of the [Tampa Bay] Rays’ brass was in the room. I guess they had filtered in the room, and they were listening. I didn’t really notice until I looked up. But after that, the Rays called. And they were saying a lot of the same things as Baltimore. So we spoke, and I spoke to literally everybody — I spoke to a lot of their front office guys, I spoke to their hitting coordinator, I spoke to their field coordinator who is now in the big leagues, even their GM reached out. So I had spoken to two GMs in a week (laughing), which was nuts. I had never really spoken to a GM before in my life. But the Rays were also really cool. I ended up going with Baltimore. They had offered, and I agreed, and I wanted to keep my word. I think there are really good people in both orgs, but I obviously love Baltimore. The people I work with are great. I love the players that I work with. And what we have going on is special.
It all happened really quick. I remember telling my mom, “I didn’t think it was gonna happen this quick.” And she was obviously really excited. But yeah, that’s how it went. That’s how I got into coaching. Went straight to Double-A in 2023.
Johnson’s latest move to the White Sox was likely heavily influenced by Fuller, who overlapped with him while serving as the Orioles’ co-hitting coach from 2022-24. With Baltimore undergoing a manager change of their own, hiring Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz to serve as their next skipper, it’s possible Johnson would have seen his existing role change.
This is a developing story. More to come.
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