The White Sox have reached an agreement to hire Will Venable as manager, reports Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Venable has spent the last two seasons on Bruce Bochy’s staff as the associate manager of the Rangers. Major League Baseball discourages teams from revealing news on days with a playoff game, so the Sox are unlikely to make the hiring official until Thursday.
In any case, it’s a nice birthday present. Venable, who turned 42 on Tuesday, gets his first big league managerial opportunity. That has seemed like an inevitability. Venable has been regarded as a future manager for years. He’s a Princeton graduate who played in parts of nine major league seasons. The majority of his playing experience came in San Diego, where he was a well-rounded outfielder.
Venable finished his playing days in 2017. It didn’t take long for him to move into the next phase of his career. He joined the Cubs’ front office late in the ’17 campaign. Venable moved into coaching the following year, joining Joe Maddon’s staff as first base coach. Teams were considering him for managerial vacancies within a couple seasons. Venable interviewed for the Cubs job after Maddon departed the organization, while he also sat down with the Giants and Astros.
Chicago ultimately tabbed David Ross. Venable stayed on Ross’ staff for the 2020 season and again found himself in managerial searches. He interviewed with the Tigers and Red Sox, and while neither team hired as manager, Boston added him as bench coach not long after rehiring Alex Cora.
Venable spent two seasons in Boston. While the Red Sox hoped to bring him back for 2023, he departed to take on the associate manager role in Arlington. It proved to be a wise choice, as Venable collected a World Series ring during his first year. He pulled himself out of consideration for managerial openings last offseason, formally declining an interview with the Mets and bypassing a chance to pursue the Guardians opening.
Between his standing as the #2 coach in Texas and his decision not to proceed through the interview process last winter, Venable seemed like the manager-in-waiting in Arlington. Bochy will be back for at least a third season and hasn’t publicly tipped his hand on retirement plans. It’s not clear whether the circumstances in Texas have changed. Venable may simply have felt that he needed another year of experience and is now ready to lead a dugout.
Whatever the reason, he viewed this winter as the right time to look for a managerial opportunity. There have only been three vacancies thus far. The Reds quickly brought Terry Francona out of retirement. That left the White Sox and Marlins. Venable not only interviewed for both positions but emerged as a finalist in each search. The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday that he and Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz were finalists for the Marlins position. There hasn’t been any word out of Miami since Venable took the Sox job, but one can infer that Albernaz is likely to land in South Florida.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on Tuesday that Venable, Albernaz and Phil Nevin were the finalists in Chicago. The Sox are also known to have interviewed Texas bench coach Donnie Ecker. Grady Sizemore, who took over as interim manager when the White Sox fired Pedro Grifol in August, also received consideration. Skip Schumaker, A.J. Ellis, Daniel Descalso, Clayton McCullough and George Lombard were among the other reported candidates.
In August, GM Chris Getz indicated the White Sox were looking outside the organization. While Sizemore was in the mix, they’ll indeed go with an external hire. Venable will have his work cut out for him with the White Sox coming off the worst season in modern baseball history. He joins the franchise at a time when owner Jerry Reinsdorf has floated the possibility of a sale. It’s an organization in flux.
It’s a much different situation than Venable would’ve assumed had he pursued and landed a job with the Mets or Cleveland a year ago. Those clubs certainly would’ve provided a clearer path to contention than he’ll find with the White Sox. Venable is familiar with the city after spending three seasons across town, though, and the rebuild should give him time to learn on the job as he works with a roster that won’t be expected to contend in the near future.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Poor fella.
“You shouldn’t have done that, he was just a boy, poor little fella”
Feeling old. Seems as if it were yesterday when he was in double A for the Padres.
Don’t feel too bad. I can remember when his dad Max played for the Giants.
Or 1B coach for the Cubs that was already 4 years ago.
Happy birthday your present is getting to manage an mlb team! The worst one in history!
The only good thing is it surely can’t get worse
Now now, don’t go selling the Mariners short. The White Sox might be at a historical low, but as the only team to never make it to the World Series, the Mariners are the worst MLB team in history.
Good for the Sox, probably not the best for him. I’m sure he demanded 5 years minimum
And I’m sure he didn’t get 5 years. Jerry never gives 1st yr skippers 5 yr contracts. Probably 3, slight chance 4 because they had to outbid the Marlins.
carausda: How would you know what’s best for someone you don’t know?
He was offered the job and accepted it. Obviously he thinks it’s the best for himself.
Quite likely he knows better than a rando like you.
very good choice by white sox. Might not be the best job, but at least he’s finally a manager. Probably decided not to wait for Botchy to retire.
They likely can’t get any worse (although with pay cuts rumored it could certainly be possible)), but either way, most other clubs won’t look too poorly on him if they still stink because what would anyone else do when given such a situation? He’ll look like a future HOF manager if he manages to get this team sniffing within .500
So did he choose them over Miami or did Miami pass on him? This answer goes a long way towards proving which of the two parties look worse. Can’t imagine picking CHW over Miami, and Venable feels like the best candidate for either team, no?
I would have thought that Skip Schumaker’s previous relationship with Drinky Tony would make Schumaker the ideal candidate for Reinsdorf.
Maybe Schumaker didn’t want the job?
Congrats, I guess
Where careers go to die
I give him 2 years
Great platoon player on those poverty Padres teams of the early 2010s. Partnered with Carlos Quentin, Cameron Maybin, Chris Denorfia…
An opportunity is an opportunity..
I remember his father Max from when he was a backup outfielder for a few different teams in the 1980’s…
Yep. Max was nothing if not persistent. He’d be a bench bat somewhere for a couple of years, disappear for awhile, and then magically reappear somewhere else right when you’d almost forgotten about him. A good roster piece to have around.
Literally hired to be the coach that gets fired after three years of sorting out this mess and getting them close to respectable. Gonna do the ugly work so the next coach can benefit. Poor soul
Baseball has managers.
TheGr8One: I am reasonably sure he doesn’t want or need you to feel sorry for him.
That doesn’t make me wrong.
Maybe, but it’s his choice and not for you to judge.
Brandon Hyde says hi
I tried to make a pun on “Venable” with “venerable” but couldn’t. Most of you Will thank me for it..
It’s not a bad choice. Frankly I was expecting much worse. They’re still stupid for not picking a strong pitching background manager. Let’s see who he picks for his pitching coach.
Theyre okay with pitching. Check out the development strides the starting pitchers have made under Ethan Katz augmented by the addition of Brian Bannister. It’s the other side of the clubhouse that needs an overhaul
Hopefully he’ll get a chance to stick around following yet another long rebuild, unlike Rick Renteria who finally got the Sox to the postseason only to get fired and replaced by JR’s pal Tony La Russa.
Jeez I remember his Dad playing w/Giants. Was nice lil contact hitter w/speed n could play OF. Also remember Will coming up as minor leaguer n now hes 42 n a manager. Where does time go ? Good luck w/new career.
Is it just me or are there a lot of ex-padre players who played under Bruce Bochy or Bud Black who have made their way to coach or GM positions? Maybe there’s a lot of teams with players like that, surely somebody knows.
The baseball version of the Andy Reid coaching tree
Happy birthday Will!
What a wonderful terrible birthday present.
I saw his dad Max play for the Giants and I thought he would be a star.
Best of luck on your managing career.
Gotta laugh at MLB’s unwritten rule of not announcing things on a playoff day, considering the story was broken by a reporter from the official MLB website
Cam: It’s really not that funny.
Going into an impossible situation. The ideal for him would be a two-year contract with a third-year option to gain experience and hope that matches when Bochy retires,
I wouldn’t personally want my birthday present to be the first MLB team I manage to be the white Sox. Literally any other team. A 100 loss team, I say is rebuilding. A 120 loss team I’d say is hoping it even can find the start of its rebuild.