Josh Barfield probably was leaning toward accepting general manager Chris Getz’s offer to become a White Sox assistant GM when a sign seemingly confirmed his decision.
When Barfield was sitting at a traffic stop with his wife, Kristy, and daughter, Kristy was stunned to see a SOX 29 license plate in front of them.
Barfield and his father, Joliet native Jesse Barfield — an All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder who hit 241 career home runs during 12 seasons with the Blue Jays and Yankees — only wore No. 29 during their major-league careers.
“We were like, ‘This is meant to be,’ ’’ Barfield said Wednesday.
Described by Getz “as a real rising star,” Barfield, 40, was the Diamondbacks’ director of player development the last four seasons. He was the organization’s assistant director of player development from 2018 to ’19 and worked in scouting from 2015 to ’17. And now he’s part of a brain trust wearing new hats and facing a huge task.
“Anytime in life when you want to do something great, you have to take a step out of your comfort zone,” Barfield said. “Everything lined up with this. Yeah, the D-backs fought to keep me, and as I went back and forth, talking to my wife, everything made sense here.”
The Sox are expected to hire a farm director soon, but Barfield will be involved in the player-development segment of a Sox operation faced with turning around an organization that sunk fast just two seasons after winning the American League Central.
What is Barfield walking into? The Sox lost to the Diamondbacks 3-0 on Wednesday, falling to 60-98 with four games to play. They’ve lost 17 of their last 22 home games and are 12-34-5 in series this season.
The Sox’ run differential dropped to minus-195. Only the Athletics (-334 through Tuesday) and Rockies (-231) had worse run differentials in the majors.
Barfield also will be involved in roster construction and player acquisition when the offseason unfolds shortly.
“I’m still getting to know a lot of the staff and players here, but there are a lot of good pieces, there’s a lot of talent here,” said Barfield, who played in 309 career games over four seasons with San Diego (2006) and Cleveland (2007-09) after being selected by the Padres in the fourth round of the 2001 draft.
“That was something else that interested me about this opportunity. You’re going to a situation where you have a chance where things can turn around. It might take a little time, but there are definitely pieces here to be a winning team. It wasn’t that long ago when this team was winning a division, so [we] hope to turn it around very quickly here.”
The Sox have lost 10 straight games to the Diamondbacks. Manager Pedro Grifol looks across the field and sees a polished product.
“Watching these guys play, from our dugout over there, those guys were developed right,” Grifol said. “I’m glad he’s on our side. Smart, articulate, well-spoken, you can go on and on and on. I’m happy he’s on our team.”
The Sox’ new front-office team after chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s firings of Ken Williams as executive vice president and Rick Hahn as GM is led by Getz, the top decision-maker, with Barfield and returning assistant GM Jeremy Haber below him. Brian Bannister was hired as senior advisor for pitching and Gene Watson as director of player personnel the same day Barfield was announced last week.
“Josh has a bright future,” Getz said. “He’s a connector of people. He’s going to energize our group. He already has.”
