White Sox MLB beat writer Scott Merkin broke the story late last night that Chicago will reportedly hire the Texas Rangers associate manager, Will Venable, as their next skipper.

Will Venable will be named the next White Sox manager, a source confirmed to me. The White Sox have not commented on the hiring, but Venable becomes the 44th manager in franchise history: https://t.co/pQDn8nzQb8

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) October 30, 2024

For those of us following the manager search closely, Venable was considered one of the top candidates with an impressive baseball pedigree. As a former player with on-the-field, front office, and dugout experience, he checks many boxes. It seemed improbable that the Sox could land such a well-rounded baseball guy to fill their vacancy, one who supposedly turned down the opportunity to interview last season with the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians. But it appears Chris Getz has pulled off some Houdini-like magic and is genuinely working to try and revamp this organization.

So, who is Will Venable? Venable, who coincidentally celebrated his 42nd birthday yesterday, spent nine years in the bigs with three different teams. He was drafted twice out of Princeton University, first by the Baltimore Orioles in Round 15 (No. 439) in 2004 and then again in 2005 by the San Diego Padres in Round 7 (No. 218). The outfielder spent seven and a half seasons with the Friars until they traded him to the Rangers in August 2015. Venable played in 37 games for the Lone Stars, which was pretty much the end of his career. After a minor league stint with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016, he caught on with the Los Angeles Dodgers in June and played only 12 more major league games before retiring at the end of the season.

The lefthanded-hitting outfielder played all three positions during his time in the big leagues but spent most of his time patrolling right, followed by center, and left. By all accounts, he was considered an above-average defender with a combined .986 fielding percentage. On the offensive end, he was about league average, ending his career with a respectable .slash line of 249/.315/.404, a 13.0 WAR, and 102 OPS+.

Only one year after his playing career ended, the Chicago Cubs named him as a special assistant to Theo Epstein in September 2017. He quickly moved to an on-the-field position as the Cubs’ first base coach from 2018 to 2019 and then shifted to third for 2020. In November of that year, the Red Sox hired him as their bench coach, and he served in that role for two seasons. During his time there, he managed seven games in the absence of skipper Alex Cora.

Finally, Venable has spent the last two seasons under the tutelage of Bruce Bochy as the Rangers associate manager, where he’s had the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the game. Bochy will undoubtedly be in the Hall of Fame one day, and Venable has had a seat next to him for two years, including the Rangers’ incredible run to the World Series in 2023. Now, with all of this impressive background, he still needs to prove that he can actually help a team win baseball games. And good gravy, the South Siders need massive help in that department after losing a record-breaking 121 games in 2024.

So, call me skeptical, and while this all looks and feels pretty good on paper, I’ll patiently take a wait-and-see approach. However, for the time being, I will give Getz some props and tally a win in his corner for at least following through on what he said he would do. Right now, this appears to have been a comprehensive search that resulted in a quality hire. He’s implementing step one in what will be a long and arduous rebuild, but there’s still so much work to do. Don’t let your foot off the pedal yet, Getzy.

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