Assuming the White Sox abide by standard MLB etiquette -- and who knows, maybe Chris Getz is a loose cannon who plays by his own rules -- their next manager won't be named until Wednesday at the earliest. Major League Baseball urges teams to avoid making major news on the day of a World Series game, which leaves Thursday as the next scheduled opportunity, unless the Dodgers sweep the Yankees and render Wednesday's Game 5 unnecessary.
That presumes there will be news to break. Sunday presented an opportunity to make an announcement, but instead, the White Sox's managerial candidate list continues to go through edits.
Sox Machine has learned that Skip Schumaker, the former Marlins manager who was considered one of the market's hottest managerial commodities, is no longer in the running for the White Sox's vacancy.
National reporters crossed three other names off the list on Sunday: Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis, and Tigers bench coach George Lombard. Jesse Rogers reported the updates on the first two names, saying the White Sox removed McCullough from the running while Ellis withdrew his name due to family considerations. Jon Heyman corroborated the Ellis note, then added that Lombard was out.
Throw in Evan Grant of the Dallas News previously reporting that Donnie Ecker will remain with the Rangers, and those are the known candidates no longer in the mix.
So who's still in? Grady Sizemore was the interim manager and is still under contract. Heyman said Will Venable remains a strong candidate. Phil Nevin was reportedly spotted at Guaranteed Rate Field by MySoxSummer. The other previously reported names who haven't explicitly been removed are Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.
But that's not all: Heyman also reported a new name under discussion: Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, who has also interviewed for the Marlins job.
Albernaz has the kind of employment history that would look good in the White Sox dugout. After spending nine years in the Tampa Bay system as an organizational catcher -- impressive for a guy who went undrafted -- he worked his way up the Rays' minor-league managerial chain, then was hired away by the Giants in 2019 to be the bullpen and catching coach, where he overlapped with Brian Bannister and Ethan Katz. After the 2023 season, the Guardians hired Albernaz, originally as a field coordinator, and then as a bench coach when DeMarlo Hale left the Guardians to take a job with the Blue Jays. The Fall River Herald News in Massachusetts published an extremely helpful local-kid-makes-good story in January that detailed how he got to the Guardians, and all the other jobs he interviewed for or otherwise considered along the way.
While he has obvious connections to Katz and Bannister, he has even more significant ties to Miami decision-makers. Marlins President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix was with the Rays in various front office roles during Albernaz's run there, while assistant GM Gabe Kapler managed the Giants during Albernaz's time in San Francisco as a coach.
