{"id":99784,"date":"2025-09-28T09:57:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=99784"},"modified":"2025-09-28T09:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:57:52","slug":"first-year-white-sox-manager-will-venable-sees-real-progress-despite-another-100-loss-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=99784","title":{"rendered":"First-year White Sox manager Will Venable sees \u2018real progress\u2019 despite another 100-loss season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Chicago White Sox have reached an agreement to hire Texas Rangers coach Will Venable as their new manager, according to ESPN. Venable, who spent the last two seasons as an associate manager on Rangers manager Bruce Bochy\u2019s staff, will take over a White Sox team that had the worst record in 2024. The White Sox finished the season 41-121, breaking a 62-year-old record held by the New York Mets, who lost 120 games during the 1962 season. Venable played nine years in the league before retiring in 2016 and going on to become a special assistant with the Chicago Cubs in 2017. The 42-year-old also served as a base coach in Chicago from 2018-2020 before becoming the Boston Red Sox bench coach in 2021. Venable replaces interim manager Grady Sizemore, who was also a candidate for the permanent job after taking over from Pedro Grifol, who was fired in August. The California native will look to turn around a team that hasn\u2019t finished above .500 since winning the American League Central in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Will Venable knows there\u2019s a balance between some of the strides the Chicago White Sox made in 2025 and also the team\u2019s poor win-loss record.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to exist in both worlds,\u201d the Sox manager told the Tribune on Thursday. \u201cIn the one world, you have a season \u2014 and I know we talk about the losses (102 through Saturday), I think about it in wins \u2014 we only have (59) wins. And by any measure that\u2019s just not good enough and we\u2019re not happy with that at all. And that\u2019s certainly something that we use to drive us and motivate us to do the right thing and work hard moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, there is real progress and there are things we\u2019re certainly proud of with our group. And that we can point to while also acknowledging that we have a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox wrap up their third consecutive 100-loss season Sunday against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Sunday also marks the conclusion of Venable\u2019s first season as the club\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot, more than I can probably even describe because it\u2019s daily,\u201d Venable said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things, you make mistakes every day and you get instant feedback on those mistakes. You do the best you can to readjust. But along the way, for me, I\u2019ve been incredibly supported in everything.<\/p>\n

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Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable sits in the dugout before the start of a game against the Minnesota Twins at Rate Field in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2025.<\/p>\n

Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune\/TNS <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect as far as the load and how that would feel that I\u2019m carrying. But I feel like I share it with a lot of people that are very helpful. So as a first-year dude who\u2019s just trying to figure it out, I don\u2019t think I could have better people around me to help me through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager Chris Getz said last week that Venable has been \u201cexcellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about a lengthy season, you see coaches and managers and players kind of ride the roller coaster a little bit,\u201d Getz said. \u201cAnd though we might have a tough loss, I know the following day when I walk into his office that he\u2019s ready to go and has put together a plan to win that ballgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the season progressed, we became more and more impressed with his ability to lead this team, lead this clubhouse and be a leader in this organization. Will\u2019s had an excellent first season as a manager. Sometimes you need to remind yourself that this is still his first year managing, and that\u2019s a testament to his ability to adjust, to read the room and continue to be the person that Will Venable is. That\u2019s a guy that shows up clear-minded and creates optimism within our clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outfielder Mike Tauchman said the message to the players in that clubhouse has been \u201cextremely consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that the energy was great, and the energy was positive,\u201d Tauchman said of Venable. \u201cWhen you have a group of younger players, there\u2019s going to be a lot of teachable moments. \u2029And I thought that him and the staff as a whole did a great job of addressing those things, and I thought as a group of players, immediately learning from those, applying them, improving on them \u2014 I thought the process of that went really well this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venable said the players \u2014 young and experienced \u2014 took ownership of the culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking for one thing to really point to in which there was organizational growth, it was just the culture of our big-league club in which these guys came with a positive attitude every single day, they were energized to have the opportunity to play baseball every day, they communicated well, they connected, they liked each other, they supported each other, they held each other accountable,\u201d Venable said.<\/p>\n

While the season is ending, the work continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time that I will transition from the season to the offseason as a manager, so I don\u2019t have a ton of clarity on what the immediate offseason looks like,\u201d Venable said. \u201cI know we\u2019ll have some things we have to do, getting staff in order and those types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

And looking ahead, Venable wants to keep a simplified process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve grown as a group together through this year and experienced some lows and some highs and some lows again, I think we all have gotten a lot of clarity on where our attention should be focused, on what some of these different parts of the game look like,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about doing anything different or more. I think we have a better idea of how to simplify things for our group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn how we go about our training, how we go about our messaging, what we\u2019re asking our players to do, what they expect to do, there\u2019s a simpler version that we\u2019re continuing to work on every single day that we think is going to be more impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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