Glenview, Ill. native Derek Shomon takes over for Marcus Thames as the White Sox hitting coach.
Derek Shomon roamed the halls of Glenbrook South High School with a broom and dustpan, but not for cleaning purposes.
A sophomore at the time, he was decked out in Chicago White Sox gear, celebrating their sweep of the Houston Astros in the 2005 World Series.
So when the team he grew up rooting for hired him as their major-league hitting coach about 20 years later, it made for a surreal moment standing in the dugout at Rate Field.
“You’re kind of like ‘This is happening. I’m back home,’” Shomon said. “Then you don’t dwell on it too long. It’s immediately followed up with we have to get to work and what’s the next steps.”
“It’s super special, man. This has always been home. I really haven’t lived anywhere else. Unbelievable opportunity. Grateful for it.”
Shomon, 35, said some describe his route to MLB as a never-ending knot trying to be untied. The Glenview, Ill. native grew up playing Northbrook Little League before graduating Glenbrook South and moving on to play collegiately at Indiana Wesleyan University the University of Illinois at Springfield.
His first job in professional baseball came in 2012 as the bullpen catcher with the Schaumburg Boomers, and he worked in independent baseball in the Frontier League and American Association until 2019.
Shomon broke into MLB in 2021 as part of the Minnesota Twins organization. He worked his way up from Single-A Fort Myers to Double-A Wichita before serving as the major-league assistant hitting coach for the Twins from 2023-24. In two seasons on the major-league staff, Minnesota ranked third in the American League in home runs, fourth in slugging percentage and fifth in runs.
In 2025 he became the Miami Marlins’ assistant hitting coach, where he helped generate an offense that ranked sixth in the National League in batting average with All-Star outfielder Kyle Stowers.
Shomon now takes over as the White Sox major-league hitting coach, replacing Marcus Thames, who joined the Kansas City Royals’ staff. The White Sox also retained Joel McKeithan for a second season as the major-league assistant hitting coach and hired Sherman Johnson Jr. as the organization’s hitting coordinator.
Shomon recently spent three days in Arizona with the White Sox, and he envisions the entire hitting staff working as a collaborative group toward the same goal. White Sox general manager Chris Getz described Shomon as high-energy, intelligent and someone who brings “real grit” to the position.
Getz was looking for alignment with the team’s director of hitting Ryan Fuller, so Shomon and Johnson’s preexisting relationship with Fuller made for a good fit. Having Fuller on staff since November 2024 also gave Getz a clearer view of the organization’s future and what he wanted in a hitting coach.
“Ryan has helped develop and roll out objectives that are very important when it comes to developing a White Sox hitter. But also how to go about acquiring such players that really can fall into those objectives,” Getz said. “So, in learning more about Ryan as the year went on and his involvement, whether it be in free agency, to the trade deadline to other moves that we’ve made and obviously seen the development of some players and maybe some players that didn’t take steps forward, we felt like we needed someone who was fully aligned with Ryan and fit into this system.”
“And it was crystal clear that Derek was a great fit for that and Sherman as an addition at the minor-league hitting role was also going to be able to carry out what Ryan had put in place and allowing everyone to go out there and accomplish things. The relationship’s going to be very natural.”
Shomon was attracted to this position with the White Sox for a few reasons. He saw parallels to the Marlins team he just worked with in that the White Sox have a young, talented group of hitters that recently broke into MLB.
Shomon also noticed the White Sox made big strides up and down the organization in 2025. The team ranked in the upper half of MLB in runs and OPS in the second half, and their chase percentage dropped while increasing their walk rate.
He took those as good signals the White Sox are heading in the right direction, and believes the offense has an opportunity to be multi-faceted moving forward. With hitters like Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and Chase Meidroth entering their second major-league seasons in 2026, Shomon is excited for the challenge of continuing their development.
“Our job is to get them as prepared as possible so they can go execute that night at first pitch until last pitch,” Shomon said. “It’s a tough job. I think there’s a lot of tough jobs in professional sports. I think that hitting is just a little bit more magnified because it is, as the old saying goes, it is an act that is revolved around failure.”
“But our job is to mitigate how long we are in those ruts and get creative and find solutions and get back to performing. I would not trade it for anything. It’s self-inflicted pain but very much worth it.”
