Will Venable Named Next White Sox Manager

According to multiple reports Tuesday night, the White Sox are set to name their next manager. Though the team has not officially confirmed the hire and cannot until after the World Series is over, it appears that Will Venable will take over at the helm in Chicago.

Venable does not have any managerial experience, but he has been a part of multiple coaching staffs, including the Cubs from 2018-2020. The 42-year-old will be the 44th manager in White Sox history, and he takes over at a time when the organization is in dire need of improvement.

The Sox set a new baseball record for losing this season, going 41-121 and in the process let go of former manager Pedro Grifol, who took over before the 2023 season. Grady Sizemore managed the team in the interim from early August until the end of the season and was considered for the permanent job. Venable was a part of a long list of candidates to be the next White Sox manager that was still a rather wide net as recently as a week ago.

In his playing career, Venable was an outfielder for the Padres, Rangers, and Dodgers from 2008-2016, and he was hired by Theo Epstein in 2017 as a special assistant in the Cubs organization. Venable has been in an advising or coaching position in some capacity ever since, most recently as the associate manager of the Rangers.

Venable is seen as an up-and-comer as a manager, so the perception is that the White Sox have wisely landed him before another team hired Venable to manage. His value to the White Sox is expected to be that he can provide stability at the helm for the long-term project of rebuilding the major league roster back into a winning team. Given where they are starting, the rebuild will not likely be a quick fix, so getting someone in his early 40s who is just starting his managerial career makes sense.

There’s also his experience under Rangers manager Bruce Bochy; the two of them helped guide Texas to a World Series title last year. For the Rangers, Venable was in charge of the team’s daily schedule from spring training through the postseason.

This experience is important because it means he has already spent time facilitating tasks that a manager would, so as he takes over for the White Sox, Venable will be comfortable with many of the managerial duties. His job as associate manager for the Rangers also means he has had opportunities to weigh in on the tactical decisions of the games themselves. And learning under Bochy isn’t so bad either; the Rangers skipper has four World Series rings — three with the Giants in the 2010s and the fourth with the Rangers in 2023.

Venable also checks another box that was clearly important to general manager Chris Getz: being a former player. After Grifol, who played as high as Triple-A in a professional playing career that spanned from 1991-1999 but had never played in the majors, Getz went with Sizemore as his interim and then stuck mostly with former players in his pool of candidates. That kind of experience can also be particularly helpful for a team that will likely skew young in 2025.

The White Sox have a lot of work to do to recover from their dismal 2024 season, and some of that might include changes at the top of the organization, but for now, they have settled the question of who will manage the team going forward.