White Sox are latest learning experience for manager Will Venable
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Will Venable knew what he was taking on when he joined the White Sox as their new manager prior to the 2024 season. He was part of a rebuild after they set a major league record with 121 losses. Even a net gain of 19 wins last season to a 60-102 record is not where you really want to be.
“Honestly, losing is not fun,” Venable told the Sun-Times during an interview this week at the club’s Camelback Ranch spring training complex. “But it didn’t take a personal toll on me. I signed up for everything required to ensure these guys come to the ballpark prepared to play every day regardless of the previous day’s results.
“I had the energy for it. I was positive about it and excited to do it every day.”
And so, here we are again. The Sox are midway through camp with an off day Wednesday and the team is starting to take shape, kind of. It’s about three weeks before the season opener on March 26 vs. the Brewers in Milwaukee against a team that had the best record in baseball last season with the 22nd-highest payroll.
For the Sox and Venable that’s something to shoot for, but it’s going to be tough this season with a team payroll for luxury tax purposes of $101.5 million, 28th in the league. Only Cleveland and Miami are below them and the Guardians are a perennial playoff team having made the postseason three times in the past four years. Teams in the AL and NL Central seem to be able to do more with less.
“I hope we’re better than last year,” Venable said. “There’s a lot of things we’re doing internally we have confidence in. We added to our talent pool. And I think the expectations have been raised here. Now we’ve just got to go out and play the games.”
At this late date, the Sox haven’t formulated a bullpen, nor set a starting rotation. They have nine pitchers vying for a starting slot. The Opening Day starter is still a figment of Venable’s imagination, but he promises to have one by the time camp breaks on March 23.
“It’s a collaborative process,” he said.
If Venable learned anything from his first go-around in this job, it’s that it all takes incessant work. He's had an uphill climb in his learning curve as a manager.
“Oh, I learned stuff every single day,” he said. “How to deploy players. How to communicate with players. Arranging practices differently. Whatever that might be. There are a ton of different things we learned along the way that were meaningful. There’s been tons of help from baseball ops, which is what I [also] signed up for. I have a great partnership with that group and they’ve been very supportive.”
Venable has his role models to draw from. He had a nine-year big-league career as an outfielder, playing most of that for the Padres. He came up in 2008 just as Bruce Bochy left for San Francisco and the club’s reins were taken over by Bud Black. Venable played eight seasons for Black.
As a coach, he worked under Joe Maddon with the Cubs, Alex Cora with the Red Sox and ultimately joined Bochy again in Texas as associate manager when they defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series. Then it was on to the White Sox.
He was All-Ivy League at Princeton University in baseball and basketball and is the son of Max Venable, another major league player. No one has a more complete baseball pedigree than Venable. But there have been plenty of outside influences.
“My first minor league spring training was Boch’s last year with the Padres,” Venable recalled. “Then my first big-league spring training was Buddy’s first year. Alex Cora in Boston. I got to work for Boch recently in Texas. Dave Roberts when he was coach under Buddy. All these guys were people I took a little something from.”
Keep in mind that for Venable all those were pretty much winning experiences. He’s never had to cope with something like this.