White Sox Reportedly Hire Will Venable as Manager

By Chris Gray

Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images

October 29, 2024

The Chicago White Sox are reportedly hiring former major league outfielder Will Venable as its new manager. This comes as no surprise given the club’s midseason firing of Pedro Grifol on August 7. Former slugger Grady Sizemore took hold of the reins to finish off the 2024 season as interim manager. Sizemore was reportedly in the running to be the new White Sox skipper, but his record at the helm was 13–32, which may be part of the reason he didn’t land the job.

Will Venable was an outfielder for the San Diego Padres, where he played eight seasons from 2008 to 2015. Venable’s career numbers are .249/.315/.404 with an OPS of .719 (102 OPS+), averaging 14 homers, 51 RBI, seven triples, 20 doubles, and 23 stolen bases per 162 games. Unfortunately, his career fizzled out during his final two seasons, one with the Texas Rangers and the other with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He only appeared in 49 games combined in his final two seasons.

Venable Switches to Coaching

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Venable was the first base coach for the Chicago Cubs from 2018-2019 before switching across the diamond to coach third base in 2020. Then he became the bench coach for the Boston Red Sox from 2021-2022. After that, he moved back down to Texas to be the associate manager to Bruce Bochy. Now he’s moving again, this time back to Chicago.

With his experience on the 2023 Rangers, Venable knows what it’s like to win a World Series as a coach. That must have been appetizing to the White Sox, who haven’t appeared in the World Series since 2005 when they swept the Houston Astros. Grifol managed the club to an unsightly 89–190 record during his tenure despite having talented players like Paul DeJong, Luis Robert Jr., Yoan Moncada, and Eloy Jimenez. The White Sox hope Venable can turn things around.

Learning From a Legend

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It’s not difficult to imagine Venable jumping into the role and thriving after coaching alongside Bruce Bochy. Bochy is a legend in baseball, securing five pennants and four World Series titles. The only World Series he lost was his first attempt in 1998 with the Padres. Bochy moved up to northern California in 2007 to manage the San Francisco Giants, so he never managed Venable. Bochy’s next three World Series Championships came in 2010, 2012, and 2014 while managing the Giants.

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After a four-year hiatus beginning with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Bochy returned to managing, this time with Venable as his associate manager. The pair won the World Series in their first season together in 2023 but failed to reach .500 in 2024. The Rangers also were unable to defend their title as they missed out on the playoffs. But Venable gained valuable insight from one of Major League Baseball’s best managers.

Time will tell whether or not Venable will be successful as the White Sox manager, but he’s surely gained some valuable experience over his coaching career that should come in handy in 2025 and beyond.

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Chris Gray

Chris is a writer, philosopher, and web developer. He is currently the Web Developer and a Contributing Editor for Sport Relay.

When Chris was young, he played Little League Baseball for years. In addition, he used to look at the statistics on baseball cards to compare the different players and trade the cards with his friends. As a teenager, he worked as a Computer Technician until he landed a position as a Network Administrator at a middle school in Los Angeles, California.

Feeling unfulfilled with a lack of education to combine with his work and life experience, he returned to school, obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from UCLA, and now spends his time writing, investing, thinking, programming, and enjoying baseball.