White Sox' Will Venable named AL Manager of the Year

When the nine-year MLB playing career that he’s always underselling ended, White Sox manager Will Venable started out with the amorphous and publicly inscrutable job title that’s often the stuff of envy across the industry: special assistant.

What he found about himself in that role eventually landed him in a position on the opposite side of the spectrum for public scrutiny.

“I like to help players be better,” Venable told the Sun-Times in September, when asked what part of his job doesn’t feel like work. “They each require a certain type of attention and support that we have to figure out. I like to figure out that puzzle, and I also really enjoy just being responsible for the overall environment.”

After 84 wins, the franchise’s first playoff series victory in 21 years, and a summer where the White Sox’ environment was the envy of the league, Venable is the American League Manager of the Year in his second season.

“Everything starts with Will,” said Miguel Vargas in October, who has gone from fighting for his place in the league to an All-Star over Venable’s tenure. “The way he lets us lead the clubhouse. He’s an example every single day for us too. He lets us be ourselves and have fun.”

“When you have guys trying to prove themselves to their own dugout or to their own teammates, it's usually a toxic culture that isn't going to get you anywhere,” said starting pitcher Davis Martin. “We built something special here where you know good, bad, or indifferent of how you perform on the field, you know the guys love you for who you are.”

Sometimes, praising Venable’s readily apparent soft skills can be a way of eliding discussion of in-game tactics, which his team’s success brought under greater scrutiny as their season wore on.

His style is busy — the Sox led MLB in relief innings, were third in pinch-hitters, fourth in pinch-runners — offering countless points for second-guessing. Talking to Venable often reveals his moves to be resting upon a latticework of research from his analysts, workload restrictions from his medical staff, and other considerations invisible to the public, rather than easily defended baseball bromides.

While Venable is process-oriented to a degree that can read as unfamiliar to this franchise, he wears the moves that don’t work in the traditional fashion.

“Perfection is impossible, but he's always trying to be [perfect], and that's what the great ones do,” said Sox field coordinator Chris Denorfia. “He cares about that stuff way more than people know. If he makes what he thinks is a bad move, he's really upset about it, and he wants to learn from it, and that's what he's really good at is getting the information and getting way more decisions right than he does wrong.”

Denorfia was Venable’s platoon partner during their playing days and remained his close friend, to the point of hesitating about joining his staff for the 2026 season. He insisted upon being equally subject to Venable’s notes about making messages to the players as blunt and direct as possible, the biweekly rules meetings, and the other “million little processes” he puts his assistant coaches through.

It’s worked out, and Venable is only getting started.

“I knew that he was good at this,” Denorfia said. “But I am almost in a constant sense of awe and amazement just watching him.”

The White Sox rarely discuss contract details of staff members publicly, and the prospect of an extension for Venable has not been enough to get them to drop their guard. But that’s not for a lack of fondness.

“He's been a tremendous partner,” said general manager Chris Getz. “My hope is that Will and I can work together for a long time.”