White Sox manager Will Venable is a “big art guy.”
As the Sox kicked off SoxFest Live weekend at the McCartin Boys & Girls Club, he reminisced about his artistic beginnings as a child. He loved to draw and create — today he’s the go-to person when his children have school projects.
As he enters Year 2 at the helm, he’ll be charged with crafting and molding this young Sox roster as the team has legitimate -expectations.
“You have to embrace it,” he said of the team talking about playoff aspirations. “Every single manager in the big leagues is looking for their club to get to that level, and that certainly makes my job easier if they already believe. My job is to say, ‘This is what we have to do to get there.’ ”
Making the playoffs would require a big leap from a Sox team that finished 60-102, the organization’s third consecutive 100-loss season. But after the ascension of Colson Montgomery and the continued development of second baseman Chase Meidroth and catcher Kyle Teel, there’s legitimate optimism for the Sox to build on their 28-37 record in the second half of last season.
General manager Chris Getz made clear that the organization’s goal was to continue fortifying its young core, and to help with that, they hired Derek Shomon [hitting coach] and Zach Bove [pitching coach]. The staff also includes Bobby Hearn, Chris Denorfia and Tony -Medina to take some of the game-planning load off of Bove and Shomon.
The front office also was active in acquiring talent. Getz went out and was opportunistic, signing Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami to a two-year deal after many prognosticators predicted a more lucrative deal. Last week, Getz inked Seranthony Dominguez to a two-year, $20 million deal with a mutual option for the 2028 season, using some of the financial flexibility he gained after trading center fielder Luis Robert Jr.
“We feel really good because we’ve got players that have some real upside,” Getz said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how [left-hander Anthony Kay] comes over from Japan. It’s going to be interesting to see how Murakami performs over here. We see the upside in it with limited risk and downside.”
Getz said that the team will remain active on the free-agent and trade markets. He said he believes the team will make more roster additions, but what level they will reach is still unclear. Increasing depth has been a point of emphasis for the Sox. As is, the roster is already better than last year’s at this point in the offseason. To continue the upward trajectory, the Sox have to put last year behind them. The second-half success doesn’t carry over, nor do the first-half struggles.
Every Sox player will enter spring training on Feb. 10 with a blank slate. But in many ways, the Sox’ success starts with him, and Venable recognizes his outsized importance to the roster more clearly this season.
“The weight my voice carries,” Venable said of what he learned from last season. “I was in tune with that as a leader of a group, but being in the manager seat is different. And we talked about my role in setting the tone on a daily basis and what that means in different parts of the year, different series, or whatever it might be. After a year of understanding what that means to our group and what it means for me, hopefully I can do a better job of that and make some adjustments.”