This former Brewers coach is already having a big impact on his new club

Not much is going right for the Chicago White Sox in 2025. While it's not quite as bad as their record-breaking 2024 season, the team still finds itself 20 games below .500 and 18 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central. However, while the winning ways have yet to return to the South Side of Chicago, the team has made a significant improvement in one area of the game, and it's likely thanks to an offseason coaching addition.

Last November, after spending nine seasons in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, Walker McKinven was hired as the bench coach for the White Sox. McKinven, a native of Winnetka, Illinois, had most recently served as the Brewers' run prevention coordinator, with a focus on game planning.

Much of the Brewers pitching staff's recent success is a result of the diligence that the pitching department exercises when planning how to attack a given lineup. It's resulted in their ability to get the best out of their pitchers because they put them in situations to succeed. Therefore, McKinven, who played a huge part in that game-planning process, was an excellent choice for Chicago's new manager, Will Veneble, when he was searching for a bench coach. And while the team as a whole still hasn't hit its stride, the White Sox' pitching staff is looking much improved.

White Sox' team ERA down 0.48 in 2025, starters' ERA down 0.83

In 2024, the White Sox carried a team ERA of 4.67, which ranked dead last in the American League. And without Garrett Crochet making 32 starts and posting a 3.58 ERA, who knows how bad the team ERA would have looked. Thanks to Crochet and a strong first half from Eric Fedde, who was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals at the deadline, the White Sox' starting pitching ERA was slightly better, but only just. — the starters held a 4.62 ERA a season ago.

However, since the addition of McKinven, both of those numbers are much improved. Chicago's team ERA is down nearly half a run to 4.19 in 2025, and the starting pitching ERA is down to 3.79 this year, an improvement of 0.83 runs from a season ago. Additionally, starters Shane Smith and Davis Martin are having breakout seasons for the White Sox. Even old friend Adrian Houser is having some success in Chicago's rotation; he pitched a scoreless six innings against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night, in his first start with the White Sox.

It's clear that McKinven is already having a major impact on the White Sox' pitching staff, and particularly their starting rotation. Chicago's pitching can't be blamed for the lack of success that the team has had this season. Rather, that blame goes to the offense, whose .618 aggregate OPS ranks worst in the AL and second worst in all of baseball — ahead of only the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At just 36 years old, McKinven is building quite the resume. If Chicago's offense can catch up to its pitching staff and the team can piece together a few more wins, McKinven will be praised even further for his immediate impact.