Will Venable made his first impressions as the newly announced next manager of the White Sox on Thursday. He was poised, calm and measured without being brash. He made no empty promises of miracles with an organization that set a record for futility in 2024.
Around the industry, general manager Chris Getz was said to have done well with his first hire, even though Venable has no experience as a manager. Venable was so highly thought of by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer when they were running the Cubs that they told him he was viewed as a future manager while he was on skipper Joe Maddon’s coaching staff.
Sitting next to Alex Cora as the Red Sox’ bench coach and by Bruce Bochy the last two seasons as the 2023 World Series champion Rangers’ associate manager spruced up Venable’s résumé.
He declined to interview with the Guardians and Mets last season. For some reason, taking a team that has lost 222 games the last two years sounded good to the 42-year-old Princeton grad who played nine seasons in the majors as an outfielder. The challenge appealed to Venable. He hit it off with Getz, who started the search with a jot-down list of 60 names.
“I wouldn’t say he sold me on it,” Venable said on a video call with reporters after the hire was made official Thursday. “I would say he was just really transparent on what he valued, and that really started with people, and that’s what I value, too. We continued to talk, and he laid out his vision for winning and the foundation he wanted to build, and it really all started with people, and that really resonated with me and kind of lit me up. As we continued to talk, I was more and more confident that he was the kind of partner I wanted to have in this.”
A partner in turning around the worst team in modern-day history? Venable was viewed as the heir apparent to Bochy, but Bochy, 69, is staying put.
“It just was one of those things last year where some of the opportunities that I had just didn’t really fit the criteria for me and my family,” Venable said. “No knock on the opportunities, and it wasn’t anything going on with Texas. It was just kind of my personal criteria. And this year, it was different.”
And Getz scooped him up.
“I look forward to diving into this with him,” Getz said. “I view him as a tremendous partner. He is someone that you’ve seen his résumé and bio, but what really stands out for him is the person.”
How Venable leads and how relatable he’ll be to players will play itself out, potentially in a rough first season that could see 100 losses and still be 21 wins better than last year.
“Regardless of where you’re at and what you’re trying to do, the most important thing is building a culture and creating an environment that gives these guys the best chance to win and compete,” Venable said.
Venable said he thrives on an underdog mentality and knows what it’s like to struggle, so that’s something he can relate to with players. He clearly understands the talent level he’ll work with on a team that might trade All-Star left-hander Garrett Crochet before Opening Day.
“I don’t think that there’s one managerial job that is easy,” he said. “All these jobs come with their unique challenges.”
As for his reliance on analytics, Venable said “most decisions should be founded in objectivity. We have this amazing information, and we have to use that as kind of like the baseline for the decision. But we know that’s not the whole story, right? We know that there are situations that change the way we look at this data.”
Most data say the Sox won’t be very good, unless Venable is a miracle worker.
He won’t be.
“We certainly understand where we are as an organization,” Getz said. “Will does, as well. There are going to be different phases along the way. But we feel like Will can be part of not only the near future here in ’25, but beyond as our roster begins to take shape and also as we start accomplishing greater things at the major-league level.”