The Chicago White Sox have hired former major league All-Star and Gold Glove second baseman Mark Grudzielanek to manage Triple-A Charlotte.
Grudzielanek spent the past two seasons working in the Arizona Diamondbacks' player development system. He played 15 seasons in the majors from 1995 to 2010, was an All-Star for the Montreal Expos in 1996 and won a Gold Glove for the Kansas City Royals in 2006.
Other managing assignments announced Wednesday were: Julio Vinas (Double-A Birmingham), Willie Harris (Class A Winston-Salem), Justin Jirschele (Class A Kannapolis), Tim Esmay (Great Falls) and Ryan Newman (Arizona Rookie League). Steve McCatty (Charlotte) and John Ely (Great Falls) were hired as pitching coaches.
Richard Dotson will serve as the organization's pitching coordinator and Mike Gellinger as hitting coordinator.
>>Red Sox's Porcello, Nationals' Scherzer Win Cy Young
Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello was named the 2016 American League Cy Young Award winner by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Wednesday. Tigers righty Justin Verlander finished second in the voting, and Indians righty Corey Kluber was third.
Porcello received eight first-place votes and totaled 137 points. Verlander received 14 first-place votes and totaled 132 points. Porcello's 18 second-place votes were the difference, as were two voters leaving Verlander off their ballots entirely.
The five-point gap is the second-smallest in Cy Young history. Verlander lost the 2012 AL Cy Young to David Price by a mere four points, so he's now been on the wrong end of the two smallest voting gaps in history. Verlander has come that close to having three career Cy Youngs.
This is only the third time in history the Cy Young winner did not receive the most first-place votes. Tom Glavine beat out Trevor Hoffman for the 1992 NL Cy Young with fewer first-place votes (13-11), and Tim Lincecum finished ahead of Adam Wainwright with fewer first-place votes in the 2009 NL voting (12-11).
Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer was named the winner of the 2016 National League Cy Young Award Wednesday by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Cubs lefty Jon Lester finished second in the voting and Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks was third.
Somewhat surprisingly, Scherzer won the Cy Young in a landslide. He received 25 of the 30 first-place votes and accumulated 192 points. Lester received one first-place vote and had 102 points. Hendricks received two first-place votes and had 85 points. Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw received the other two first-place votes.
Scherzer went 20-7 with a 2.96 ERA (141 ERA+) in 228 1/3 innings in 2016. He led the league in wins and innings, as well as all of baseball in strikeouts (284) and WHIP (0.97). On May 12, Scherzer became the fifth pitcher in history to strike out 20 batters in a nine-inning game.
