CHICAGO (AP) — Will Venable is a busy man these days. The new manager of the Chicago White Sox is learning his way around the organization. He is talking to his new players and working with the front office on its offseason plans.
As Venable assembles his first coaching staff with Chicago, he has at least one name in mind: Grady Sizemore, interim manager for the White Sox at the end of last season.
“There’ll be a role for him,” Venable said Friday after slipping on his new No. 1 Chicago jersey during a news conference at Guaranteed Rate Field. “I think it’s going to be about how to best utilize him and how to best complement his skillset.”
Venable, 42, has never been a major league manager before, and he is stepping into a daunting rebuilding project. Pedro Grifol was fired in August and Sizemore ran the team the rest of the way as the White Sox went 41-121 to break the post-1900 major league record for losses in a season.
Venable was an associate manager for Texas for the past two years, helping the Rangers win the 2023 World Series. He left that position last month when he agreed to take the top job in Chicago, and it sounds as if everyone is getting along swimmingly — so far.
“There’s so many decisions that go in every day as a general manager,” White Sox GM Chris Getz said, “and what I’ve noticed in this short period of time is I’m comfortable calling Will about any one of those subjects and talking it through. And that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for a partner in this, and I think it’s a pretty good sign that it’s already as natural as it is.”
Venable and Getz are both former big leaguers. Venable was an outfielder during his nine years in the majors with San Diego, Texas and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Venable’s father, Max, played parts of 12 seasons in the majors, and also was a minor league manager and coach.
Will Venable said the adversity he faced as a player — the difficulty of making to the majors and staying there — helped prepare him for the his new job’s challenges.
“I feel like William’s a good communicator,” Max Venable said, “so I feel like that’s a good trait to have. I just feel like, too, that’s he’s pretty honest, and I feel like players just want someone that’s honest with them.”
Before he became a big leaguer, Will Venable played baseball and basketball while majoring in anthropology at Princeton. He was an all-Ivy League performer in each sport.
Venable said his education at Princeton has helped him throughout his baseball career. He wrote his college thesis on the cultural differences of baseball in Japan and the United States.
“I think now when you’re talking about communicating with a diverse set of people and what I had to do as a player and communicating with people from different places, it’s absolutely helped me,” he said.
Venable also has worked for the crosstown Cubs and was Boston’s bench coach in 2021 and ‘22, managing the Red Sox for one game in 2021 when Alex Cora attended a graduation and for six in ’22 when Cora tested positive for the coronavirus. Venable interviewed with the White Sox before Grifol was hired in November 2022.
This time, it worked out.
“This is an opportunity to continue to help build and be part of the foundation that’s already being laid here,” Venable said. “And I know that every one of these jobs is challenging. Every group going into every year has their work cut out for them, and I’m excited for the challenge that this group presents.”
Also Friday, the White Sox announced they had agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Justin Dunn, who will report to big league spring training.
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