A year after transitioning into coaching, former Chicago White Sox infielder Danny Mendick has been named manager of Tampa Bay’s Class A affiliate.
It didn’t take long for former Chicago White Sox infielder Danny Mendick to kick off his coaching career.
Mendick was still playing in the big leagues as recently as 2024. By 2025, he had already transitioned into coaching, joining the Tampa Bay Rays organization at the minor league level.
Now, he’s landed his first managing job.
After spending last season on the coaching staff for the rookie affiliate Florida Complex League Rays, the organization announced that Mendick will manage its Class A affiliate, the Charleston RiverDogs, ahead of the 2026 season.
Mendick played six MLB seasons from 2019–2024, five of them with the White Sox. That alone makes his career a success story, considering he was an underdog from the jump as a 22nd-round pick in the 2015 MLB Draft out of UMass Lowell.
He posted a .647 OPS during his time with the White Sox. Over his full big-league career—including a 2023 stint with the New York Mets—Mendick appeared in 231 games, collecting 140 hits and 14 home runs.
Certainly not numbers to write home about. But Mendick found a way to stay in the league by bringing value to his teams beyond the box score.
His versatility, strong defense, and high baseball IQ made him a useful bench piece during the White Sox’s brief contention window. Those same traits tend to translate well to coaching, making his rapid rise on the player-development side feel like a natural progression.
In Charleston, Mendick will work with some of the Rays’ most important young talent. That includes top prospect Theo Gillen, currently ranked No. 2 in the organization and No. 65 in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline.
19-year-old shortstop Daniel Pierce, the Rays’ first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, could also be under Mendick’s tutelage at some point this season.
And depending on how the draft plays out, Mendick may eventually oversee whoever the Rays select with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft—one spot behind the White Sox in what’s shaping up to be an exceptional class for talent.
All of it speaks volumes about how highly the Rays think of Mendick. While the job sits at the lower levels of the minor leagues, it also places him in charge of developing future stars during their most formative years.
For someone just a year removed from playing in the big leagues, that’s an impressive—and telling—start to his post-playing days.