Since we last checked in on the loosely connected candidates for the White Sox's managerial vacancy, one removed himself by consideration when Terry Francona, whom Bruce Levine suggested was interested in coming out of retirement, took a job with the Cincinnati Reds.
While one name was crossed off the list, four names joined the fray. It makes sense. White Sox officials have been talking up the size of the net they're casting, and with two full rounds of the postseason left to play, the list should still be growing.
Last Friday, Keith Law mentioned in a chat that Buck Showalter wants in:
One thing I heard that I would hate for them is that Buck Showalter is angling for the manager's job - given his propensity to interfere in player development, he's the wrong hire for that position.
Then Jon Heyman dropped three other possibilities on Thursday:
Former Angels manager Phil Nevin and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso are among a long list of White Sox managerial targets.
One big target is Rangers bench coach Will Venable, the seeming heir apparent in Texas who turned down the Mets.
Of the group, Venable has had the most cachet in previous rounds, so much so that he turned down the Guardians and Mets last October in order to remain an associate manager with the Rangers. The Rangers went on to win the World Series, but the Guardians and Mets are still alive in this year's postseason, so the jury's out on whether he chose poorly. I suppose we'll find out when Bochy's current contract expires at the end of next season.
Venable checks a lot of modern manager boxes: a nine-year playing career, coaching experience for multiple modern organizations (Cubs, Boston, Texas), and an Ivy League background, as he played college ball at Princeton. Given the organizations Venable has rejected, it doesn't seem like the White Sox would be the one to pry him loose, but there's no harm in trying. Chris Getz has already shocked everybody once by hiring Brian Bannister away from the Giants.
The other rumored candidates are more typical of the kind who would find the White Sox job a real step up. Nevin managed the Angels for 1½ years, taking over after Joe Maddon's firing in 2022 and shedding the interim label on a one-year extension while Arte Moreno considered selling the team. He went 119-149, including 73-89 in his only full season, but he was lauded by players for his enthusiasm. Ron Washington fared far worse in replacing Nevin, so his experience weathering misguided ownership has more application with the White Sox than most places.
Descalso broke into the big leagues with the Cardinals during Tony La Russa's last two years in St. Louis, then returned to the Redbirds as a bench coach this past season. That may lead you to write him off as Store Brand Skip Schumaker, but he also overlapped with Josh Barfield in the Diamondbacks front office as a special assistant to baseball operations in 2023, and going back to complete his economics degree at UC Davis gave him an ability to talk the talk with front offices.
But his new degree has led to unique inroads with other departments. After learning how to code “multivariable algorithms” in an analysis of economic data course at UC Davis, Descalso was able to reach across the aisle from the dugout to the front-office analysts.
“Some of the analysts were working on something, and I recognized the program. They kind of looked at me, like, ‘How do you know about that?’” Descalso said, noting most teams now have analysts writing code to understand player performance. “Just understanding what goes into those models helped me to be able to have conversations with those people that don’t necessarily have a playing background but are a vital part of our organization.”
Descalso, who turns 38 next week, would be among the youngest candidates for the job, beating Grady Sizemore and Sergio Santos by a few years. Yet time may not be on his side, because given that the Cardinals are on the verge of a considerable front office transition, Oli Marmol's coaching staff might not be the most secure place to be.
Showalter, 68, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. He's a four-time Manager of the Year with a lifetime record of 1,727-1,665 with five different teams. He last managed the Mets to a 75-87 record in 2023, and was let go when David Stearns took over as the new president of baseball operations. He's folksy, he's seen it all, and he's considered a good manager of personalities and the media. As for his fit in this situation, he's demanding of young players, but he's not going to be somebody who champions the work of an analytics department.
While analytics isn't everything at the managerial level, Getz probably has to weigh it more heavily at this juncture. Rick Hahn saw A.J. Hinch as his opportunity to hire an ally in modernizing the front office, but Jerry Reinsdorf blocked him by hiring Tony La Russa, the chain of command grew more convoluted, and the organization stagnated until it disintegrated. It doesn't seem like Getz would be inclined to invite that misfortune upon himself when he's attempting his own overhaul, and Law's characterization of an "angling" Showalter makes me picture him gunning for a similar end-around at the ownership level.
At any rate, you can throw these names in with other previously reported candidates like Schumaker, Sizemore, Santos, Carlos Beltrán, and Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough. Regarding the last name, when looking at the coaches the Guardians interviewed in their process of replacing Francona last October, I came across a fact that probably should be mentioned the way anybody has to cite first-hand experience with La Russa: "His father, Howard, is a longtime scout for the Kansas City Royals."
