Omar Vizquel's time helping to develop the White Sox of the future is over.
The White Sox announced Wednesday that Vizquel, who spent the last two seasons as a manager in the White Sox minor league system, will not be back for 2020.
"Omar and our organization agreed to head in different directions," White Sox player development director Chris Getz said in a statement. "We appreciate what Omar did for the White Sox and our minor league players, and we wish him all the best with whatever comes next."
Vizquel, who spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons playing for the White Sox at the tail end of a lengthy major league career, was the manager at Class A Winston-Salem in 2018 and at Double-A Birmingham in 2019.
Vizquel won the Carolina League Manager of the Year Award after guiding the Dash to an 84-54 record in 2018. He oversaw positive seasons for highly rated prospects such as Dylan Cease, Nick Madrigal, Dane Dunning, Jimmy Lambert, Micker Adolfo, Luis Basabe, Blake Rutherford, Gavin Sheets, Bernardo Flores, Tyler Johnson, Luis Gonzalez and Joel Booker.
A move up to Double-A in 2019 did not bring the same level of success, as a team and for those individual players. The Barons finished at 64-72, with Adolfo, Basabe, Rutherford, Flores, Johnson, Gonzalez, Zack Burdi, Zach Thompson and Alec Hansen all seeing their production decline. Madrigal and Luis Robert, however, did quite well during their time at Birmingham in 2019.
The White Sox appear to be on the verge of lessening the attention fans and observers pay to the goings on in the minor leagues, with Robert and Madrigal on the doorstep of the majors. Though player development, of course, obviously remains important for the White Sox and their long-term success.
