The White Sox’s new hitting coach is being credited for unlocking Kyle Stowers’ breakout — and the story behind it is even more impressive than the numbers. DD

Derek Shomon shared an interesting story about his work with Kyle Stowers, who became an All-Star in 2025 after a slow start to his major league career.

The White Sox hope a retooled coaching staff can help continue steady improvement from a young team in 2026, and new hitting coach Derek Shomon will be part of that effort.

A Glenview, Ill. native who grew up a White Sox fan, Shomon was officially hired on Nov. 7. He spent last season as the Miami Marlins’ assistant hitting coach and the previous four seasons in various roles within the Minnesota Twins organization.

One example from his time in Miami helps describe his coaching style.

How Derek Shomon helped Kyle Stowers have breakout year

The Marlins acquired outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Connor Norby from the Baltimore Orioles at the 2024 trade deadline in exchange for left-handed pitcher Trevor Rogers. It’s looking like a solid deal for both sides now, as Rogers finished ninth in AL Cy Young voting in 2025, Stowers became an All-Star and Norby was ranked fifth among Orioles prospects at the time of the trade.

But it took some reflection and hard work from Stowers and Shomon to get to that point. In his first 50 games with the Marlins, Stowers slashed just .186/.262/.295/.556 with two home runs, 13 walks and 61 strikeouts.

He had a major turnaround in 2025, hitting 25 home runs and driving in 73 runs in 117 games while slashing .288/.368/.544/.912, cutting down on strikeouts and increasing walks. An interaction with Shomon seems to have helped spark Stowers’ development.

“I think it goes back to finding what that player’s identity is,” Shomon said. “Like each guy is different from the guy next to him. That was no different from Kyle Stowers. What do you look like and who are you as a hitter when you are at your best? You are presently not there. Here is what we see from you performance wise that’s not allowing you to be that guy. What direction do we go?”

“Kyle and I had a very real conversation in Spring Training early on when I started to feel he was panicking a little bit. I called him on an off day when he was out with his wife walking his dog, and I asked him straight up are you panicking. He said, ‘No, I’m not panicking.’ I’m pretty sure it feels like you are panicking. He called me back and says I am panicking. “

“We met in the cage early the next morning. Just giving him that freedom to express himself and say I’m actually terrified right now, and I want to admit that to you and for us to say now we are there, we can get to work. That doesn’t change. That’s person-first mentality and always keeping that in mind as we move forward and make adjustments to try to improve in-game performance.”

This example with Stowers displays Shomon’s ability to build personal relationships with players. And when the White Sox were searching for a new hitting coach, they talked to several others who had positive things to say about Shomon.

“Sho was one of those guys that I heard from different networks, and you know that guys are special when that happens,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “It was an easy name to get on the list. Then you go through your process where you’re connecting with more people, the Michael Taylors of the world, people who have coached with him, guys who have been around them as players and you start to build this picture of who the guy is.”

“Then you’re obviously connecting with them as well. Up front there’s just guys that kind of pop out and the industry has identified, and Sho was one of those guys.”

Shomon learned a lot in Miami, and he’s excited to bring those lessons to the South Side.

“Upping the training environment, practices as close to the game as possible. Present as many solutions as possible for that individual,” Shomon said. “Really try to avoid the identity crisis, meaning what’s the best version of you as a hitter. How do we get you to be that guy more times than not? How do we enhance that profile?”

“And like I said, a lot of the things they were doing last year in that second half and overall going back to the swing decisions, it’s very very similar. That stuff absolutely matters and lends itself to creating more 90s, to scoring runs, to winning baseball games at the Major League level.”