The White Sox are coming off baseball's worst season. Will Venable signed up anyway

CHICAGO Outside Guaranteed Rate Field, snow clings to the concrete and reminders of better days loom.

There are black letters attached to the stadiums facade commemorating three World Series titles.

Theres a sculpture dedicated to the 2005 World Series champions.

Later this very January night, the Chicago White Sox will announce plans to erect a statue of Mark Buehrle, the teams ace from a generation ago.

Advertisement They do not build such monuments to teams that lose 121 games.

That is what the White Sox did last year, a modern record for most losses in an MLB season.

Now the whole organization is trying to pick up the pieces and move forward.

So when first-year manager Will Venable accepted this gig in October, he inherited a daunting uphill climb.

Only 42 years old and for years a trendy name in managerial openings, Venable has heard similar questions since the day he took the job.

Why, exactly, are you here? Tall, slender and sharp, Venable sits down in his office wearing a black coat, relaxed behind a managers desk that is finally his.

Theres a lot of reasons, he says.

To his right, the thermostat on the wall reads 57.9 degrees.

In a job full of challenges, getting the heat going is just another kink hell have to work out.

Not far removed from a nine-year MLB career, Venables rise happened fast.

He was mentioned in connection with managerial openings for the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros before the 2020 season, then with the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox before the 2021 season.

He even interviewed with the White Sox before 2023, when Chicago instead hired Pedro Grifol.

Those are just some of the few rumors that swirled, and he says not all the reports out there about jobs he did or didnt interview for were entirely accurate.

Most recently, Venable was associate manager for the Texas Rangers under the steady hand of four-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy.

The title associate manager rather than bench coach implied his importance.

People across the game viewed Venable as the 69-year-old Bochys heir apparent.

Venable swears he never saw it that way.

Never was there an assumption from me that I was going to be the next guy or that Boch was going to be three years and out, Venable said, referring to Bochys contract that expires after this season.

I dont think that would be appropriate for me to put a timeline on his career or make the assumption that I was just going to get the job whenever he was done.

Advertisement Successor or not, other teams kept calling.

In October of 2023, when the Rangers were staging their run to the World Series, Venable passed on an interview for the New York Mets job.

He withdrew his name from the Cleveland Guardians opening, too though most people dont know he actually did one round of interviews there.

Between the Rangers postseason run and talks with his family, Venable said those jobs just didnt feel right.

Strange, though, that Venable passed on the big-money Mets, the pitching factory Guardians and then left the stability of the Rangers for ...

this job.

Here outside Sox-35th Station, the White Sox are a team under deep reconstruction, a franchise mired in uncertainty, a ballclub whose chances of contending in the near future are about equal to the odds of Frank Thomas coming out of retirement.

Venable understands these questions.

Hes happy to explain his reasons.

How he and his wife love Chicago.

How he felt a natural chemistry with general manager Chris Getz.

How he likes the idea of building something from the ground up.

We put it all together, and it was really a no-brainer for me, Venable said.

And if were being real, there was another factor at play.

You never know when the phone might stop ringing.

It just got to the point where eventually these teams stop calling, Venable said.

I felt like I owed it to my family, to myself, to explore some of these things.

Anthropology is, essentially, the study of human behavior.

How people and cultures evolve over time.

As an undergraduate at Princeton in the early 2000s, Venable found the subject fascinating.

The interest was a product of his upbringing.

His father, Max, played 12 years in the major leagues.

Will was raised in California, and summers usually meant following Dad across the country.

When Venable was 10 and 11, he lived in Japan while his father played for the Chiba Lotte Marines.

It started with a summer.

Then a whole year.

When the family debated whether to move the kids, Max Venable viewed it simply.

Why not? he said.

Venable and his siblings were homeschooled overseas but played Little League with their Japanese counterparts.

Advertisement Years later, Max had a similar, matter-of-fact view when his son considered signing on to clear wreckage from the worst season in major-league history.

A lot of times you go to places and you say, Well, maybe its not the fit, Max said.

But a lot of times the opportunity only comes around every once in a while.

It may be one time and it never comes back around.

People across the game call Venable incredibly nice, almost to a fault.

Hes praised over and over again for his connective people skills.

If theres somebody that can positively impact (the White Sox), they got the right guy, said Nick Hundley, a teammate of Venables since the minor leagues and now a special assistant with the Rangers.

He can be intellectual, Getz said, but also has the ability to talk to anyone at any level, and thats just because hes very engaging and he cares about people.

The intellectual side was fostered at Princeton, but the truth is that his days at the Ivy League school were also the most difficult time of Venables life.

As a college freshman, Venable moved across the country, strayed headfirst into cold weather and found himself dismayed by the brainy students and demanding coursework.

He first wanted to become an architect.

The math classes didnt go well.

Honestly, I felt like I was in over my head academically, Venable said.

Now looking back and talking to them, everyone did.

But that was the feeling I had.

Venable had grown to 6-foot-3, and came to Princeton expecting to play both basketball and baseball.

Used to being a leader, he was suddenly the one getting yelled at for bad cuts or late help defense.

In an effort to get his head above water, he cut baseball from the picture and altered his academic path.

At his mothers behest, he was back taking hacks in the cage his sophomore year.

His coach predicted he would become a draft pick.

By his junior year he declared his major in anthropology.

I liked to write papers more than take tests, he said, a telling look into his brain.

Advertisement A couple of years later, as Venable emerged from the mud and thrived, he titled his senior thesis: The Game and Community: An Anthropological Look at Baseball in America and Japan.

Venable was drafted in the seventh round and spent nine years playing in the major leagues.

Years later, the anthropology degree would prove useful.

The early stages of the White Sox interview process featured a writing portion.

Grady Sizemore, the teams interim manager, replaced Grifol midseason and expressed interest in staying in the post.

But given the horror show that was 2024, Getz wanted the teams managerial search to be exhaustive.

The White Sox started with a list of more than 40 names.

(Sizemore would later end up on Venables staff.) The writing phase featured specific questions about the game, about management styles, about culture.

Getz, a Michigan graduate, and other members of the front office read over the responses.

So did outside independent advisers.

There wasnt a right or wrong answer, Getz said.

It was for us to get a better understanding of how they organize their thoughts, how they view certain parts of the game.

Through all that, it was very obvious that (Venable) really was able to break things down and make it easy for the reader to understand who he is and how he plans on being successful as a major-league manager.

In a way, the franchises dismal state was one of the things Venable found attractive.

The managers ultimate responsibility is navigating the 162-game grind.

But Getz also sought a partner who could assist in bolstering the player development system, recruiting free agents and reshaping the teams entire identity.

The manager role, in my opinion, has become bigger than it used to be, Getz said.

I think, Hundley said, Will sees the opportunity to really impart some of the things he believes in systematically, and I think Chris Getz has done a good job of giving him latitude to do that.

Advertisement The in-person interview unfolded at Tre Dita, an upscale Italian restaurant inside the St.

Regis Hotel, overlooking the Chicago River.

The restaurants and the water are two of Chicagos greatest perks.

Getz, doing some salesmanship, figured hed show off both.

In all his interviews, Getz made a point to be transparent about the organization both its problems and its progress.

It was important for us to really paint the picture of where were currently at and where were headed, Getz said.

Venable came with his accomplished, fast-rising resume: First base coach for two years under Joe Maddon, third base coach for a season under David Ross, two seasons as Alex Coras bench coach in Boston, then two seasons as Bochys right-hand man.

To me, you dont choose to (be a manager), Venable said.

Its such an honor.

Youre selected to do this.

It didnt seem appropriate for me to angle or position myself to get this job.

Even when he went to Rangers, Venable says succession plans were not front of mind.

Relationships were more his draw.

Venable, Hundley and Rangers general manager Chris Young were all teammates with the San Diego Padres.

Young predated Venable as a two-sport athlete at Princeton.

We talked for years about this idea of working together, Venable said.

Now the connection with Getz was grabbing Venables attention.

The two crossed paths as players but had little prior relationship.

The more Venable listened to Getz describe the organizations under-the-hood work data, performance science, game planning, advance scouting, you name it the more serious the discussions became.

He took the job.

Fourteen days later, the Rangers hired former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker as a senior advisor, perhaps bringing aboard a new heir.

By MLBs Winter Meetings in December, Bochy was singing the praises of his former pupil.

Advertisement Will is more than ready, Bochy said.

Im really happy that he is doing this.

Then Bochy joked: I told him, Be careful what you ask for.

Blocks away from Guaranteed Rate Field, the Ramova Theater is a historic landmark.

Founded in 1929, the gem of Neoclassical and Spanish Revival architecture was a longtime staple in Chicagos Bridgeport neighborhood.

Then, in 1985, it was shuttered and abandoned.

Beginning in 2017, a group of South Side benefactors including Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson and Quincy Jones pitched in to save the place.

This year, the revived Ramova hosted SoxFest, the first time the organization has held this once-annual fan event since 2020.

Midway through the first night of festivities, Venable sat in a cushy chair on the intimate theaters stage.

Legs crossed and white Nikes on his feet, Venable was positioned between Getz and play-by-play announcer Len Kasper.

The trio talked less about the past and more about the future.

Prospects on the rise.

Systems being built.

Philosophies on the game we will soon see in action.

Only a few years ago, Chicago was perceived as a burgeoning juggernaut with dynamic young talent.

Then, under owner Jerry Reinsdorf, the team made the surprising decision to hire veteran manager Tony La Russa before the 2021 season.

La Russas tenure resulted in a 2021 playoff appearance but was also mired in controversy and perceptions of an unsettled culture.

As the roster fell apart, the organizations cracks falling behind in analytics, losing the edge in player development, generally having an organization that ran top-to-bottom and had little horizontal overlap began to show.

The White Sox had antiquated methods of compiling and analyzing data .

They struggled at positioning fielders and evaluating pitchers.

General manager Rick Hahn and vice president Kenny Williams took the fall.

Advertisement In August of 2023, after both were fired, Getz, previously the farm director, got the job of GM and began an overhaul.

The White Sox did not interview anyone else for the position.

As an internal hire from a team with a mediocre farm system, Getz was met with skepticism.

He made progressive hires in director of pitching Brian Bannister and director of player development Paul Janish.

Getz also drew questions when he hired and signed a surprising number of people he knew from the Kansas City Royals, largely because fixing the franchises culture was top of mind.

In his first season, Getz was met with the shrapnel of 121 losses.

This season, the forecast has hardly improved.

PECOTA, the games leading projection system, picks the White Sox to win only 61 games and finish last in their division.

Talented outfielder Luis Robert Jr.

could be traded by the July deadline as part of what figures to be a long rebuild.

Down on the farm, shortstop Colson Montgomery, catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery and left-handed pitchers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are the top prospects who signal hope.

The Athletic s Keith Law ranked the farm system 12th, noting a lack of depth but also writing the system has improved dramatically in the last 18 months.

Challenging as this road is, the fact a sought-after managerial candidate like Venable took the job is an encouraging sign.

While I understand that last year matters and theres a baseball community and players and front office here that was impacted by that, I think of this as a fresh start, Venable said.

It was only a few months ago, after the handshakes, interviews and introductions, when Venable returned home with his wife and daughters and the realization hit: Wow, Im a major-league manager.

Then there was work to do.

The first step? Figure out what Im supposed to be doing, you know? he said.

Advertisement The Ramova was one of the last stops before the real stuff started, before the whirlwind of Venables past few months settled into baseballs normal grind.

The White Sox held their first full-squad workout on Monday in Arizona; they kick off Cactus League play Feb.

22 against the Cubs.

Renovations are not for the faint of heart, and in Chicago, even the managers office is getting a makeover.

New, dark gray carpet covers the floors.

The walls were recently painted black, his wifes idea.

Theres a fake plant in the corner, and Venable figures his girls will help with artwork.

Even the heat should be working soon.

Since Ive taken (this job), Venable said, its been everything I had hoped and more.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images).

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