HOUSTON — Whenever White Sox manager Will Venable is asked about himself, he rarely answers about himself.
When asked what makes this Sox team different from recent, less successful iterations, he said, ‘‘It starts with Chris Getz,’’ the general manager.
When asked how he has handled his first postseason as a manager, he said, ‘‘I feel really well-supported [and] that’s really a credit to my staff.’’
Certainly, Venable deserves credit for guiding a team to the playoffs after three consecutive seasons with more than 100 losses — something that never had happened in major-league history. But he never will accept it.
He happily will take a spot in the American League Division Series against the Guardians instead. That’s where the Sox are headed after beating the Astros 7-3 on Wednesday to win the wild-card series 2-0, keeping a stunning season alive.
‘‘He’s built for this,’’ Getz said while trying to stay clear of the beer and champagne showers in the clubhouse. ‘‘His leadership ability, his competency, his ability to communicate with players, his temperament — he really is made for this.’’
Getz hired Venable, the son of former major-league outfielder Max Venable, but never dreamed he could turn the Sox into a playoff team — let alone a playoff-series-winning team — in such a short time. But he said he did know that Venable would be the perfect partner in that pursuit.
‘‘When it comes to Will Venable, so many people want him to succeed,’’ Getz said, still managing to stay dry. ‘‘It’s how he treats people. It could be anyone in the building. I just knew that he was going to be able to get a team and an organization to pull toward something special.’’
‘‘Will’s obviously done a fabulous job,’’ chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said outside the raucous clubhouse. ‘‘He taught these guys how to win.’’
He did more than that. With Getz’s help, he assembled a coaching staff in which he has complete faith. The players are the ones making it happen, but Venable’s staff is helping them make it happen.
‘‘He empowers his players; he empowers his staff,’’ assistant GM Jin Wong told the Sun-Times. ‘‘That’s very important from a leadership perspective. It’s less about doing than empowering the people you put in place. That creates an environment that is very trusting.’’
It sounds antithetical, but part of being a leader is allowing others to lead. Delegating is one of Venable’s strengths, and his coaches largely have repaid that trust. He’s more than happy to point that out.
‘‘If you have somebody in those types of leadership positions that doesn’t need all the credit and spreads the credit around, it makes people feel good, props them up,’’ Wong said. ‘‘That goes a long way.’’
Venable is, in a word, impressive. Yes, he has made mistakes, particularly when he made a second mound visit in the first inning of a game in August, requiring him to pull Noah Schultz. But he took responsibility, and that’s what his players do. They follow his lead.
‘‘He’s got this air about him that is calm and collected,’’ Wong said. ‘‘He’s very approachable. He’s one of those guys you look up to. He’s a great example of leadership.’’
It’s a different environment than the Sox experienced under previous managers. Since letting World Series-winning manager Ozzie Guillen go at the end of the 2011 season, the Sox had struggled to find a good fit.
Robin Ventura managed for five nondescript seasons, the first of which was his best with an 85-77 record. He didn’t exactly push for the job, but he took it. Rick Renteria followed with four mostly forgettable seasons, the last of which resulted in a wild-card berth. However, managing for his job, Renteria mismanaged that series, and the Sox showed him the door.
After the highly regarded A.J. Hinch became available after his one-year suspension for the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, the Sox were so smitten with him that they never even interviewed him. Reinsdorf much preferred to right a wrong from almost 35 years before and bring back then 76-year-old Tony La Russa, whom Reinsdorf had fired in 1986.
Granted, La Russa led the Sox to a division title in 2021, but the ’22 team — not to mention the overall La Russa experience — was a profound disappointment. That led to even more disappointment under Pedro Grifol, which led to Reinsdorf cleaning house. He fired president Kenny Williams and GM Rick Hahn and put Getz in charge of everything.
Getz hired Venable. Two seasons later, the Sox not only made the postseason, but they won a series. They hadn’t done that since sweeping the Astros in the 2005 World Series — in Houston, of all places.
Now it’s off to Cleveland. Whether the Guardians stole the Central from the Sox’ grasp in the last two weeks of the season or whether the Sox handed it to them is debatable. But it won’t matter one bit if the Sox beat them in the ALDS, moving one step closer to the unfathomable: a spot in the World Series.