Zach Bove Took Unique Path To Becoming White Sox Pitching Coach

Becoming a major-league pitching coach wasn’t in Zach Bove’s plans when he was the hitting coach at College of Central Florida.

But when head coach Marty Smith told Bove he’d take over as the team’s pitching coach, it unexpectedly set forth a successful chain of events.

“At the time, I did not want to do it, but [Smith] said, 'You're gonna be really good,' [and had] a lot of trust in me,” Bove said Tuesday, shortly after he was announced as the White Sox new major-league pitching coach.

“And you fast forward –– that was 2014 –– to where we are now, right, so just a lot of learning along the way. A lot of people helped me get here, a lot of fortunate situations at CF, the Twins, the Royals, a lot of support throughout the years.”

Bove, 37, takes over for Ethan Katz as the White Sox pitching coach after three seasons with the Kansas City Royals as a major-league assistant pitching coach. He spent the previous four seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization, holding various roles on the pitching side.

Bove pitched in high school, but given his playing career as a first baseman at Central Florida Community College and Flagler College, he believes he has a different take on pitching.

"Starting out, I couldn't just fall back on, well, this is what I did as a pitcher, right? So I just had to search for the best way to go about it. I was totally open,” Bove said. “That's kind of right around the time when all this information was coming, you know, Twitter and the Drivelines and all that stuff.”

“So just really open, talked to a lot of people in the game, used my playing experience as a way to like, okay, this is what I struggled with as a hitter, so maybe there's value in kind of educating our pitchers on that. So again, tried to use all resources available to make –– at the end of the day it's still the goal to make the pitchers better and just create an environment that is conducive to their own development and always open to a better way of going about it."

White Sox general manager Chris Getz ultimately landed on Bove after an “exhaustive process” with a long list of candidates. That included a writing assignment, case studies and multiple panels assessing who’d be the best fit.

Bove’s intelligence and character stood out to Getz, along with having a strong reputation throughout MLB. He also feels Bove can work well with others in the White Sox organization.

“The synergy was another thing that stood out between [director of pitching] Brian Bannister, [manager] Will [Venable], the coaching staff, we just feel like he's a great fit,” Getz said. “He represents the pillars that we have prioritized here with the White Sox organization as we're looking to find improvement. We're very excited to have Zach part of the organization.”

Bove said he did not have any strong, personal relationships with the White Sox going into this process, aside from hearing positive things about Getz’s time in Kansas City and knowing of Venable and Bannister from afar.

Now he joins Venable on a White Sox staff in the midst of significant changes. After the 2025 season, the White Sox did not renew the contracts of Katz, hitting coach Marcus Thames, first base/outfield coach Jason Bourgeois and catching coach Drew Butera.

Bove is the first hiring the White Sox have officially announced this offseason, but the team's press release mentioned that additional major-league coaching staff hires for the 2026 season will be announced in the near future.

“This is not about me having my guys or putting my imprint on the staff,” Venable said. “This is about us finding, in collaboration with the front office and our staff currently here, us finding the best staff for our group and helping our group move forward. As Chris mentioned, that was a collaborative effort that we really enjoyed.”

“We just couldn't be more excited to have him. He's not only somebody that is technically proficient and has an understanding of how to improve pitching. This guy is somebody that has done an amazing job of creating buy-in on the front end by being somebody that on a human level can connect with people and really make a difference.”

Bove will guide a major-league pitching staff in 2026 that will look a bit different than the previous season. The White Sox already lost one starter in Martín Pérez, who declined a $10 million mutual option and became a free agent.

Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Yoendrys Gomez and Jonathan Cannon could factor into the starting rotation again in 2026, while the White Sox top three pitching prospects Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal are pushing to make their MLB debuts.

Venable believes Bove is the right guy to help the White Sox get the most out of their pitchers.

“It’s a matter of finding the right systems, the right practices, the right approach with each individual guy to unlock those things,” Venable said. “That takes a lot of work up front and building relationships.”

“That takes a lot of work in understanding what it is we want to attack, utilizing biometric information and a lot of data and most importantly build relationships with players and understanding how to implement those things. As we evaluated Zach’s skill set, we were confident he was the guy being able to do those things.”

There will be new faces on the pitching staff, too. On Thursday, the team also reinstated pitchers Prelander Berroa, Drew Thorpe and Ky Bush from the 60-day injured list, and Getz mentioned trades or free agent signings could be made to bolster the starting rotation and bullpen.

Looking ahead to 2026, Getz wants the White Sox to take strides in categories like walks, first-pitch strikes, 1-1 count percentage, defense, pitching framing. He believes Bove can play a key role in doing so.

“When you are looking to make improvements and you find someone like a Zach Bove who has such a strong reputation,” Getz said. “And you look at the body of work, you look at what the Royals have done the last couple of years, and they have really, you look at where they were a couple of years ago to where they are now, they were at the bottom of the pack with walk percentage and getting ahead and controlling counts.”

“They made a big jump. Zach Bove deserves a lot of credit. You talk to their pitching coach over there and staff members with Kansas City and you talk to players and they credit Zach.”

Bove considers himself to be laid back and even keel, and he knows building relationships with the pitching staff is an important part of the job.

Last season in Kansas City, he worked with a starting rotation that mostly consisted of Michael Wacha (3.86 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 126 K, 172.2 IP), Seth Lugo (4.15 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 125 K, 145.1 IP), Michael Lorenzen (4.64 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 127 K, 141.2 IP), Noah Cameron (2.99 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 114 K, 138.1 IP), Kris Bubic (2.55 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 116 K, 116.1 IP) and Cole Ragans (4.67 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 98 K, 61.2 IP). The Royals also had a talented closer in Carlos Estevez, who led MLB with 42 saves while recording a 2.45 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP.

The Royals in 2025 ranked sixth in MLB in ERA, 11th in WHIP, 12th in batting average against and 26th in strikeouts, while allowing the eighth-fewest home runs and ninth-fewest walks.

In addition to the obvious traits a pitching staff must have to be successful, Bove is focused on small things that can provide an edge.

“Those little details are extremely important, the running game, fielding your position,” Bove said. “I was kind of exposed to some really unique things that the Royals did. Can’t take credit for it all, it was really a team approach from different areas. If you dive into the Royals the past couple of years, just how good they were at defensive runs saved, fielding your position and limiting stolen bases and all that stuff. There’s definitely some things I learned there that I’m excited to bring here to the White Sox.”

From building the staff to executing on game day, there’s a lot that goes into the pitching side of things, and the White Sox are excited to have Bove on board.

“There’s a front office component to it. There’s a research and development. There’s pitch design. There’s daily gameplanning that goes into it. There’s communication ability that goes into, developing these arms and building a rapport,” Getz said. “We feel like Zach is going to be a big piece of this. He’s going to be a driver, team up with Brian Bannister as we fill out the remainder of the pitching staff. He’s going to be a strong asset for what we want to accomplish.”

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