CHICAGO – Declan Doyle isn’t the only new offensive coordinator in Chicago.

He’ll help first-year Bears head coach Ben Johnson on the football field come fall, while Grady Sizemore assists first-year White Sox manager Will Venable on the baseball diamond. The title “offensive coordinator” isn’t completely foreign to MLB coaching staffs, but its history being rooted in football provided a humorous moment for Sizemore in his second season on the south side.

“For a while, our red zone offense was terrible,” Sizemore joked Sunday in the White Sox dugout. “A lot of fourth down conversions not going our way.”

Sizemore didn’t rigidly define his day-to-day as White Sox offensive coordinator, in part because it’s different every day. That speaks to his openness in helping the organization, which promoted him from “major league coach” to interim manager last August, when the White Sox were 28-89 and eventually lost an MLB-record 121 games.

The record wasn’t what anyone wanted, but Sizemore learned from his first experience as a manager.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” Sizemore said. “I think it was a fun experience. And I was just proud to lead those guys and they made it fun for me and again it was a great learning experience. I took a lot from it, and learned a lot and just tried to come in and tried to kind of build off of that and we have a new team here with a lot of new faces so trying to build that trust and get that same flow that we kind of finished with is what we are trying to do here.”

Despite enduring everything that came with being on the wrong side of history, he didn’t run away. He returned to face a major rebuild head-on and help the White Sox in any way he could.

“I didn’t care,” Sizemore said of his job description in 2025. “The title almost is the distracting part. Everyone’s like, ‘Well, what does that mean? How do you define it?’ And I can’t really say what it means or what it defines. I think I’m just trying to carve a path out to help these guys and be a good bridge for the coaching staff and the players.”

“The title really doesn’t mean anything. You’re trying to be an asset for these players. I didn’t really care what the role was, or what the name was. I just kind of want to do anything I can to make an impact.”

His responsibilities are constantly changing because of the nature of the game and the state of the organization. In general, he takes what Venable and bench coach Walker McKinven are looking for offensively, then helps hitting coaches Marcus Thames and Joel McKeithan come up with a game plan.

Sizemore also looks for base-running cues to help first base coach Jason Bourgeois. Put simply, it’s finding ways to help players improve and looking for advantages that lead to runs on the board.

Adapting to new personnel has been a major part of the season, too. The 26-man roster features 10 rookies, most in MLB, five of which were called up midseason from the minor leagues to make their debuts. Injuries and performance have added to the shuffle, but Sizemore feels the team has begun to come together.

After Tuesday’s 4-2 victory in Houston, the White Sox won five times in a seven-game stretch for the first time all season.

“It’s fun, it’s exciting. I think we’re kind of finally starting to see some of these young guys, and we’re getting healthy again,” Sizemore said. “So we have our veterans back, we have the young guys. So we’re kind of seeing what it was meant to look like from the start of the year right now. I think that’s the exciting part, when it comes together and we’re seeing positive results in the series to series. So I think it’s all been fun. Like I said, I’ve enjoyed my time here and the relationships I’ve built, so just looking to continue that and try to get better each day.”

Sizemore, 42, is now 10 seasons removed from the last season of his playing career with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was once a top player in MLB, making three straight All-Star appearances with the Cleveland Indians from 2006-08. That stretch also included two Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and three top-12 AL MVP finishes, but injuries cut his prime shorter than it could have been.

He became a manager sooner than expected, and didn’t want to put a potential return to that role. For now, he’s doing what he can to help the White Sox as their offensive coordinator.

“You know, I’m not really looking that far ahead,” Sizemore said of managing in the future. “Again, I didn’t set out for that last year. I didn’t think that was on the bingo card. But again, I was trying to make the most of the opportunities I had in the moment.”