Jirschele returns to White Sox as third base coach

Justin Jirschele, a native of Clintonville, will be returning as the third base coach for the Chicago White Sox in 2025.

The White Sox announced its 2025 coaching staff via a Dec. 9 press release. Jirschele was originally promoted to the third base coach position with the White Sox in August of this year when changes were made to the White Sox’s coaching staff.

“I’m very excited and grateful for the opportunity to be on the Major League staff, and I’m ready to get to work for the Chicago White Sox,” Jirschele told the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette.

Coaching third base in the major leagues is a familiar position for the Jirschele family, as Justin’s dad, Mike, was the third base coach for the Kansas City Royals for six seasons, including when the Royals won the World Series in 2015.

Clintonville roots
Not surprisingly, Justin Jirschele was a star baseball player for Clintonville High School. When asked about his accomplishments, Jirschele began listing off the accomplishments of the teams he played on in high school. He said he played on “some good teams” in high school, teams that went to sectionals. He also said the Clintonville Legion team he played on won back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008.

Individually, Jirschele said he was named first team All-Conference three years, and was named conference player of the year his senior season.

“I played shortstop in high school, but when I went to college, I moved around from second to third, a little bit of shortstop,” Jirschele said.

Jirschele went to UW-Oshkosh his freshman year of college, but transferred to UW-Stevens Point for the remainder of his college years. He earned first team all-conference honors his junior and senior year. He also won two All-American Rawlings Gold Glove awards for Division 3. The Gold Glove award is awarded for outstanding defense.

“Those two are my babies,” Jirschele said. “My dad was always an infield guy. We always prided ourselves being strong defenders. To be recognized as one of the best in Division 3 at that position, my sophomore year I won it at third base and my junior year I won it at second base. And that’s in the entire country in Division 3. Those are given out by Rawlings, similar to the Major League Gold Glove awards, just not as big.”

Despite the accolades in college, Jirschele was not selected in the Major League Baseball Draft after his senior year of college. But the Chicago White Sox offered him a free agent contract, which he signed, so he could start his Minor League Baseball career, in an attempt to reach the Major Leagues.

“I always felt like there might be a chance of going in the draft, but obviously I know there’s a lot of good baseball players out there, so I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity with the White Sox,” Jirschele said.

Pro career begins
After signing with the White Sox, Jirschele began his professional playing career in rookie ball in Greybull, Montana.

“It was not necessarily a shock, but it’s obviously a completely different level of competition,” Jirschele said. “Some of the top guys I ever faced in college, you’re seeing those every night as pitchers. Then the relievers would come in, and some of those guys were throwing stuff I had never seen in my life. It was just kind of getting used to the level of competition and really trying to hold your head above water and compete with those guys, the best of the best.”

Prior to going to rookie ball, Jirschele said his dad, who played for more than 10 years in minor league baseball, reminded him about how good the players would be that he would be playing against. He said his dad told him to keep competing and working on a daily basis, and to stay humble.

Jirschele played three and a half years in the minor leagues, and progressed through the White Sox minor league system.

“I got has high at Triple A as a utility player, so I bounced around a lot,” Jirschele said.

Triple A is just one level below the major leagues, so Jirschele was on the cusp of reaching the major leagues as a player. But in May of 2015, Jirschele was given the opportunity to become a hitting coach in the White Sox’s minor league system.

Despite being only 25 years old, Jirschele said he wasn’t surprised with the coaching opportunity.

“They had talked to me about getting into coaching the year prior,” he said. “Obviously, some things didn’t pan out, so I went to Spring Training as a player and was ready to keep going, and then this came up in the middle of the year. I was surprised at the timing of it, but not that they were asking me to coach.”

It was a tough decision. If he accepted the coaching position, it meant his dream of playing in the big leagues was over. But if he accepted the coaching position, because he was so young, it would allow him plenty of time to advance as a coach.

“I would say 95% of guys are told that their careers are done, or they just don’t get that opportunity anymore after they are released or cut or whatever,” Jirschele said. “They told me, ‘You can keep playing, finish this year out and see where we’re at, at the end of the year, or if you want this job, you can take it right now.’”

Ultimately, Jirschele decided to accept the hitting coach position.

When asked if he accepted the coaching position because he felt that was his best path to the majors, Jirschele said with a laugh, “Yeah, ultimately, because I wasn’t a very good player.”

“You get into professional baseball, and you start seeing the talent around you, and you start to understand where you stack up with these people, and you know it’s certainly a longshot to make it to the big leagues at that moment,” Jirschele said. “Not that you don’t have those goals, or those dreams, and you’re certainly working for it, but just that sense of reality.

“And on the opposite side, them offering me a coaching job at such a young age, I saw an opportunity that may not have come again, especially with the White Sox, the organization I knew. I just felt that the timing was right, and I was able to kind of hit the ground running because it was the middle of the year.”

Coaching career begins

After spending the second half of the 2015 season as a minor league hitting coach, Jirschele spent 2016 as the hitting coach for the Low A team in Kannapolis, North Carolina. In 2017, he was promoted to manager of that team. In 2019, he managed the team in Winston Salem, North Carolina, which was the White Sox’s High A team.

Another promotion in 2021, led Jirschele to the manager’s position for the Double A team in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent two years there, before taking over the manager’s job for the Triple A team in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the manager of the Charlotte team until August of this year, when he received the phone call that brought him to the major leagues.

“Our GM (general manager) had called in August and said ‘I’m making a change, you’re going to come up and you’re going to coach third base and run the infield for the rest of the year,’” Jirschele said.

Jirschele’s dream of making it to the big leagues was coming true, but he said he had mixed emotions because he knew those who were losing their jobs.

“First and foremost, it’s a shock, because of the timing, and you’re getting the call being told you’re going to the big leagues,” he said. “I’ve told people that usually I’m the one who gets to make that sweet phone call or bring a guy into my office and tell him that his dream’s coming true.

“I knew guys up there that I have known were losing their job because of the fact I was coming up there. Some of those circumstances obviously weren’t ideal, but at the end of the day, once the dust settled a little bit and I was on my way to Chicago, it’s ‘Ok, how can I go up there and help and try to turn this thing around and be a positive impact?’”

Even though Jirschele had been a manager in the White Sox minor league system, he also served as the third base coach during the games he managed.

When he was promoted to the third base coaching position with the White Sox, Jirschele was 34 years old. But age is not something Jirschele said he thinks about.

“I feel like, my whole career, from the day I started coaching, I got asked a lot about being the youngest hitting coach, or being the youngest manager,” he said. “I tried to drown a lot of that out knowing that I’m here for a reason and have a job to do. I’m confident in my abilities as a coach and instructor, as a mentor.”

When Jirschele received the call from the GM of the White Sox informing him that he was being promoted to the third base coaching position with the White Sox, his family was with him at the time.

“My family was actually there with me, including my mom, and also my sister, her husband, and her three boys,” he said. “My wife’s parents as well were with us. We jumped in the trucks and drove north to Chicago. That was a blessing in disguise. It was something that none of us seen coming. To have all them there, and then some cousins drive down from the Appleton area and Madison area, it was a ton of support, and it was really, really neat to see them all up there.”

Unfortunately, Jirschele’s dad couldn’t be there because he was managing the Triple A team for the Kansas City Royals.

But Jirschele said his dad was excited when he heard the news about the promotion.

“He understands the game and how this works, and the timing of it,” Jirschele said. “(He was) certainly surprised and shocked, as we all were at that time, but definitely excited for me, and excited I was going to get that opportunity.”

Coaching duties
To be a successful third base coach, Jirschele said he watches a lot of film of outfielders to see how strong their arms are and how they attack a baseball hit to them.

“Pretty much every single scenario that could come up, we have video on it, and we have data on it,” Jirschele said.

In addition, Jirschele is the infield coach for the White Sox.

“I was in charge of running the infield defense,” Jirschele said. “During the game, it’s making sure guys are in their correct spots of where our data shows they should be to defend the ground ball. Along with that, it’s watching film on opposing offenses and guys that bunt.”

The future
When asked if he has a goal of managing in the big leagues in the future, Jirschele said he tries not to think about that.

“If the opportunity presented itself, would I say no? Absolutely not,” he said. “I would love an opportunity, but it’s not something that I’m working towards or striving towards. I love the opportunity I have each and every day with the Chicago White Sox. I take that opportunity with gratitude and understand that I have a job to do, whatever that may be, each and every day. I’m confident that whatever happens, will happen down the road.”