CHICAGO – The Chicago White Sox have announced additions to its baseball operations department, with Josh Barfield being hired as assistant general manager, Brian Bannister as senior advisor to pitching and Gene Watson as director of player personnel. The appointments were announced today by Chris Getz, White Sox senior vice president/general manager.

“We are very pleased to add Josh, Brian and Gene to our baseball operations decision-making and leadership group,” said Getz. “All three are highly respected baseball executives who bring different backgrounds, accomplishments and points of view to our department.

“Josh is a real rising front office star, Brian is recognized as one of the top pitching minds in the game, and Gene is acknowledged as one of the best talent evaluators in baseball. I am excited for them to get started working together as we define our new vision for the future and create a path to success for the White Sox organization.”

Barfield, 40, joins the White Sox after working for nine seasons with Arizona, including the last four as the director of player development. He previously served as the organization’s assistant director of player development from 2018-19 and worked in scouting from 2015-17.

During Barfield’s tenure, the Diamondbacks promoted numerous top prospects to the major-league club, including Corbin Carroll, Dominic Fletcher, Jordan Lawler, Jake McCarthy, Ryne Nelson, Geraldo Perdomo and Alek Thomas. Arizona’s farm system currently is ranked 10th by Fangraphs and 12th by MLB.com, and three Diamondbacks’ players rank among the Top 100 in baseball.

Barfield, the son of former major leaguer Jesse Barfield, appeared in 309 career games over four MLB seasons with San Diego (2006) and Cleveland (2007-09) after being selected by the Padres in the fourth round of the 2001 draft out of Klein (Texas) High School.

Bannister, 42, spent the last four seasons as the director of pitching with the San Francisco Giants. During his tenure, San Francisco ranked third in the major leagues in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.15), sixth in ERA (3.82), eighth in winning percentage (.546) and ninth in WHIP (1.24) and allowed the fewest home runs (516) and second-fewest walks (1,452). Bannister helped guide pitchers Kevin Gausman (2021) and Carlos Rodón (2022) to sixth place finishes in the National League Cy Young Award voting.

Bannister spent five seasons with the Boston Red Sox from 2015-19. He originally was hired as director of pitching analysis and development before transitioning to Boston’s coaching staff as the assistant pitching coach in the middle of the 2016 season. He served as the Red Sox vice president, pitching development and assistant pitching coach during Boston’s 2018 World Series championship season.

A Scottsdale, Ariz. native, Bannister played five major-league seasons with the Mets (2006) and Royals (2007-2010). He is the son of former White Sox pitcher Floyd Bannister, who pitched five seasons with Chicago and was a member of the 1983 American League West championship team.

Watson, 54, brings more than 25 seasons of scouting experience to the White Sox organization, including the last two as the Kansas City’s vice president of major league scouting/assistant general manager after spending most of 2021 with the Los Angeles Angels as senior advisor to the general manager/major league operations.

Watson previously worked for the Royals from 2006-20, first as a major-league scout from 2006-08, then as the coordinator of pro scouting from 2009-11 and director of pro scouting from 2012-17. He was a member of the Royals scouting staff when they won back-to-back American League pennants in 2014-15, including a World Series title in 2015. Most recently, he served as Kansas City’s senior director of pro scouting/assistant to the general manager from 2018-20.

Watson was honored by the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation in January 2018 with the Legends in Scouting Award. The award is presented to a Pro Scout who exemplifies a love for the game and a passion for scouting.

Watson, a native of Temple, Texas, played college baseball at the University of Texas at Arlington from 1989-91.