Will Venable was formally introduced as the White Sox’ 44th manager Friday, taking the helm after the Sox lost a modern day record 121 games in 2024.
The Sox announced the hiring last week.
Venable, 42, will wear jersey No. 1.
“Early on in our process we recognized he could be a final candidate. It became quite evident he was a perfect fit for the job,” general manager Chris Getz said Friday.
Venable joined the Sox after spending the last two seasons with the Texas Rangers as associate manager under four-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy.
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) November 8, 2024
Venable was active during the GM meetings in talks with Sox personnel and others from around baseball. One of his first orders of business will be finalizing his coaching staff. Some current members have been informed that they’ll return, Getz said, and indications are hitting coach Marcus Thames is one of them. The process should be finalized in the next two weeks, Getz said.
Venable played nine seasons before joining the Cubs as special assistant to president Theo Epstein in 2017. Cubs GM Jed Hoyer spoke about Venable at the general managers this week.
“I got to know him well when he was a player [in San Diego], and he was a fantastic combination of super-fiery and competitive, and also just super-thoughtful,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said. “So, when he was done with his career, he was an obvious guy you were going to want to bring in as an employee. I joke all the time, like 7% of my job I spent on his various permission requests because he was so popular every year. But I loved getting to know him better in that role. And you just saw the wheels constantly turning. You knew where this was going to end; it was just a matter of when and where.”
Hoyer is friends with Getz.
“And I’m really glad that Chris is going to benefit from being the where,” Hoyer said. “There’s no question, he’s going to be a really good manager. I don’t see his development arc changing. I think he’s just a lifetime learner. He’s someone who’s really curious. I think he’ll be good to start. I think he’ll keep getting better. But he was a very obvious guy from a very early point that, if this is what he wanted to do for a living, he was going to be able to do it, and probably pretty quickly.”