The White Sox have their manager in Will Venable.
It'll probably just take them a couple days to announce it.
The White Sox will be hiring Venable, currently the associate manager of the Texas Rangers, as the official replacement for Pedro Grifol. Given that the Yankees extended the World Series to a Game 5 on Wednesday with their 11-4 victory over the Dodgers tonight, the White Sox probably won't announce it themselves until Thursday, whether it's because it's a scheduled off day or the end of the MLB season.
Scott Merkin broke the news via sources, and we've heard the same thing.
Venable entered the coaching ranks after a nine-year MLB career as an outfielder primarily with the Padres, with brief end-of-career appearances with the Rangers and Dodgers. Upon retirement in 2017, he joined the Cubs as a special assistant to Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, and was named first-base coach later that winter. After three years with the Cubs, he moved to Boston to become the Red Sox's bench coach. In 2023, he joined Bruce Bochy's staff as an associate manager in Texas, and picked up a World Series ring for his decision.
While Venable is a first-time manager, this was his second consecutive October in the managerial rumor mill. He was reportedly among two finalists for the Miami Marlins' vacancy alongside Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz (who, incidentally, was a finalist for the White Sox job). Venable also turned down interviews with the Guardians and Mets last year, which makes the decision to take over the team that just set the modern MLB record for losses in a season a little bit curious. It'll probably be among the first questions asked whenever he's officially introduced, but between Venable and Brian Bannister, Chris Getz has been able to make a couple of hires that might not have initially seemed realistic.
Besides Albernaz, candidates whose names remained in circulation to the end included former Angels manager Phil Nevin and White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore. Nevin and Sizemore received positive reviews from the players they managed, but Venable's employment history suggests that he'll be well-equipped to help Getz understand the information gaps in the White Sox dugout. As for Sizemore, he's under contract with the White Sox for another season regardless, so hiring Venable wasn't a mutally exclusive proposition. Back in August, Josh Barfield said Sizemore had the most to gain of any potential Grifol replacement, and listed a number of potential capacities where he could use that experience:
“A lot of the really good managers, the first time through maybe it didn’t go so well and you talk them afterwards and it’s ‘Man, I learned so much,'” Barfield said. “I’m sure he’ll make some mistakes and he’ll learn and grow from it. But I think he’ll take everything he learns from this and whether it’s as a coach, as a manager, whether it’s something on the front office side, the experience he’ll take from this vantage point, sitting in that seat, I think he’ll learn so much.”
The reference to a front office position could indicate that the White Sox wouldn't force Sizemore upon Venable's preferred coaching staff, or maybe that was Barfield merely speaking as generally as possible. That's also something to be learned in a couple three days.
