California dreams to Charlotte dugout: Sergio Santos on board as Knights’ manager
If you asked Sergio Santos at 5 years old, the California native’s dream was to be a Major League Baseball player.
Attending his two older brothers’ games since he was 3 gave Santos a taste of the joy that baseball brings. And even though he played “every sport you can think of” growing up in the Los Angeles suburbs, baseball became his passion.
Santos, 41, has accomplished his childhood dream.
The new Charlotte Knights’ manager pitched for four MLB teams from 2010 to 2015, recording 30 saves as the closer for the Chicago White Sox in 2011. His baseball passion has brought him to the Queen City, where he’s now in charge of one of the ball clubs where he played coming up in the minor leagues.
“As all players, you have an expiration date,” Santos said Wednesday afternoon in the dugout at Truist Field. “Once I finished playing, I took a couple years off to be with my kids, and then started thinking about the next chapters in life. I was fortunate enough to be a first-round draft pick out of high school, so I didn’t go to college, but I feel like I have my Master’s and my P.hD. in baseball.
“Almost 20 years in professional baseball. It’s what I’m passionate about, and once I started coaching, it lit a fire under me to help the next generation along and learn from my past mistakes.”
‘Sacrifices you make in minor-league baseball will pay off one day’
Pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers a decade ago, Santos joined a list of MLB hurlers who’ve struck out four hitters in one inning.
Santos retired the next three straight batters via the strikeout on May 16, 2015, after three-time All-Star DJ LeMahieu reached on a dropped third strike to open the inning. He totaled 15 strikeouts over 13.1 innings with the Dodgers that season before signing with the New York Yankees, where he’d eventually begin his coaching career.
The Bellflower, California, native became a top baseball player — primarily a middle infielder — at Mater Dei High School, south of Anaheim. Santos was selected 27th overall in the 2002 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, as a shortstop.
Santos’ minor-league journey brought him to various clubs before making his MLB debut with the White Sox eight years after he was drafted, and it was the Chicago organization with affiliates in the Charlotte area where he started pitching in pro ball.
“Baseball is one of those sports where the big league side to the minor-league side is just so drastically different,” Santos said. “There’s a reason why you’re in the big leagues — and it’s the best hotels, the best food, the best travel — but I feel like going through that minor-league process really sets the tone for that hunger of wanting to reach there.
“To me, minor-league stories are far greater than big league stories, just because of the circumstances that you’re put in. I try to teach players now through my experience to embrace adversity, accept it and just know that the sacrifices you make in minor-league baseball will pay off one day.”
Charlotte is now home for Santos
Santos began his first year in the White Sox organization in Kannapolis, about 30 miles northeast of Charlotte.
The newly-converted pitcher spent time at all four levels of Chicago’s minor-league system in 2009, opening the season with its Single-A affiliate then known as the Kannapolis Intimidators and ending it in Triple-A as a member of the Knights.
Santos’ MLB debut came on April 8, 2010, and he pitched for the White Sox over the next two seasons. He was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays following his 30-save season as Chicago’s closer and pitched for the team north of the border from 2012-2014, before finishing his big league career with Los Angeles and New York.
Santos became manager of the Hudson Valley Renegades, the Yankees’ High-A affiliate, in 2023 before rejoining the White Sox’ minor-league teams in the Southeast a year later. The organization hired him to lead the Double-A Birmingham Barons last season, and now he finds himself a Triple-A skipper in one of the biggest Minor League Baseball cities.
“I fell in love with Charlotte right away,” Santos said. “I’m a foodie, so if you want a good steak, there are about four or five steakhouses. If you want some sushi, they’ve got that. If you want Italian food, they’ve got it all. I think it’s a really great mix of great restaurants. It’s just really cool. You walk around and see people from all walks of life. From business suits to people in joggers getting their exercise in.
“It’s just a very ‘homey’ type of city.”
