Santos Named Knights Manager for 2025 Season

(UPTOWN CHARLOTTE, NC) -- Sergio Santos, who guided the Double-A Birmingham Barons to a Southern League Championship last season, has been named manager of the Charlotte Knights for the upcoming 2025 season. Santos, 41, becomes the 26th manager in franchise history and the fourth former Knights player to manage the team (Joel Skinner, Nick Capra and Justin Jirschele are the others).

The entire 2025 Charlotte Knights field staff will be announced at a later date.

Santos, a native of Los Angeles, CA, enters his second season in the Chicago White Sox system as a manager after spending the entire 2024 campaign at the helm of the Barons. He guided the club to a first-half division title, posting a 41-28 record. Overall, his Barons finished the 2024 season with a 72-66 record and a Southern League Championship victory over the Montgomery Biscuits. For Santos, the championship marked his second as a Minor League Baseball manager. In 2022, he led the FCL Yankees to an FCL Championship, his first season as a manager. He was named the 2022 FCL Manager of the Year for his efforts. In two seasons as a manager in the New York Yankees’ organization (2022-23), Santos posted a 108-79 record. In three seasons as an MiLB manager, he owns a 180-145 overall record as a manager.

As a player, Santos pitched three games for the Knights in 2009 before embarking on a six-year MLB career. In 194 career MLB appearances, Santos posted a 7-12 record with 39 saves and a 3.98 ERA combined with the White Sox (2010-11), Toronto Blue Jays (2012-14), Yankees (2015) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2015). In 2011, he posted a 4-5 record with a 3.55 ERA and a team-high 30 saves for the White Sox. He was originally drafted as an infielder by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round (27th overall) of the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft. He converted to pitching full-time in 2009.

Santos joins Skinner, Capra and Jirschele as the only Knights players to also manage the team. Skinner, the all-time winningest manager in franchise history, played for the Knights in 1994 and managed the club for four seasons from 2012-2015. Capra played for the Knights in 1995 and managed the team for three seasons from 2002-2004. Jirschele played for the Knights from 2014-15 and managed the club for nearly two seasons (2023-24). Veteran MLB infielder Pat Listach took over as Knights manager last season (August 8, 2024) when Jirschele was promoted to the White Sox as the team’s third base coach, a position Jirschele will return to with the White Sox this season.

Single-game tickets for the first half of the 2025 season, as well as full-season and partial season ticket plans, are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.CharlotteKnights.com, by phone at 704-274-8282, or in person at the Truist Field Ticket Office located at 324 S. Mint Street. Knights Baseball. Experience The Game, The View, The Fun!