Coleman to work with White Sox baserunners

Last season the Kansas City Royals led the major leagues with 153 stolen bases, and they represented the American League in the World Series.

The White Sox ranked 19th with 85 steals and were caught 36 times, a 70 percent success rate.

On Saturday, the Sox announced that Vince Coleman is joining the organization as baserunning instructor. He ranks sixth in major-league history with 752 stolen bases.

"He's going to work at the big-league level and also spend some time in the minors," general manager Rick Hahn said. "He will begin in spring training, spend some time in Chicago, spend some time with our affiliates.

"As (manager) Robin (Ventura) alluded to, early in the off-season we identified wanting to have someone with some basestealing acumen, and obviously tremendous credentials like Vince has as a means to augment our coaching staff and help draw out a little more from certain players."

Coleman's first two projects figure to be White Sox leadoff man Adam Eaton and Micah Johnson, who enters spring training solidly in the mix for the starting job at second base.

"It's very exciting," Eaton said at SoxFest. "Any help that I can get in any aspect of baseball is always help wanted."

In his first year with the White Sox in 2014, Eaton stole 15 bases but was caught nine times.

"You can just run in Triple-A, just run in Double-A, and be fine," Eaton said. "Once you get to this level, there are a lot more layers to it, a lot more finesse, a lot more baserunning smarts that come into it."

Eaton was hampered by hamstring injuries throughout last season, as was Johnson. After stealing 84 bases in the minor leagues in 2013, Johnson's total dropped to 22 last season.

"My hamstring hurt last year, and that was an adjustment I didn't think that I would have, the weather," Eaton said. "Going from Arizona and you're feeling great every day, 75 and sunny and feeling warm, to going to 20-degree weather, 30-degree weather, my hammy and my legs didn't like that too much and it did affect me early stealing bases.

"I was on first base not really wanting to go because I knew how my legs would feel when I got to second, and if I got thrown out I was going to feel even worse. So that definitely hindered me."

Coleman, 52, was a baserunning/outfield coach in the Houston Astros' organization the past two seasons. He was a minor-league instructor in the Cubs' system in 2004-05.

Cashing in:

Rick Hahn wasn't thrilled about having to spend $46 million over four years to sign free-agent closer David Robertson, but the GM said the White Sox weren't even the highest bidder.

Replacing legend Mariano Rivera in the New York Yankees' bullpen last season, Robertson was 4-5 with a 3.08 ERA. The 29-year-old reliever had 39 saves in 45 opportunities and struck out 96 in 64⅓ innings.

"Spending big money on relievers can be real risky," Hahn said. "There are no guarantees, but if you're going to make a bet your going to want someone with David Robertson's profile."

Character references:

Before signing free-agent Adam LaRoche to a two-year, $25 million contract in late November, Sox GM Rick Hahn said he made some calls to get background on the designated hitter/first baseman.

Hahn was told LaRoche's clubhouse presence compares to Jim Thome, Sean Casey and Mike Sweeney, an impressive trifecta.