Last offseason, Will Venable turned down managerial interviews with the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians, two teams that wound up making their respective league championship series.
So how did Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz sell Venable, an ex-big leaguer and associate manager for the Texas Rangers, on being the the next manager of a team that just lost a record-setting 121 games and was the laughingstock of baseball?
“I wouldn’t say he sold me on it,” Venable said in a video call with reporters and Getz on Thursday, shortly after the official announcement. “I would just say he was really transparent on what he valued and that really started with people. That’s what I value, too.”
When it came to possible managerial jobs, Venable, who coached with the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox before landing in Texas, said he and his wife Kathryn had “a set of criteria” to consider. He won a World Series ring with the Rangers in 2023. Next season, Texas missed the playoffs.
“It just was one of those things last year where some of the opportunities that I had just didn’t really fit the criteria for for me and my family,” he said. “No knock on the opportunities and it wasn’t anything going on with Texas, it was just kind of my personal criteria…
