Will Venable has the Chicago White Sox ahead of schedule

Will Venable should not be here, speaking like this — or as this. At least not yet. It is entirely too soon. This should happen far off into the future, after years of toil.

Instead, in just his second season as manager of the Chicago White Sox, the 43-year-old Venable can crow about leading a historically awful franchise, which is now leading its division and poised for a postseason run.

“Yes, we have some talented guys on the field, but it’s this thing that is really hard to define,” Venable said. “This connectivity between our players, the way that they go about their business, the way that they treat each other, the way that they respond to adversity and really lean on each other for different things.

“It’s really cool to watch [Chicago general manager Chris Getz’s] vision come alive. And we’re seeing the results.”

Venable was speaking from his office in the visitor’s clubhouse of Detroit’s Comerica Park on Sunday. A few hours later, Chicago completed a three-game sweep of the Tigers, its first in Detroit since 2022. This is the same club that in 2024 lost 121 games, an MLB modern era record. The White Sox enter today’s game against the Atlanta Braves (ESPN Unlimited, 2:10 p.m. ET) with a 66-60 record and a four-game lead in the American League Central division.

While much attention this year has gone to Sox superfan Pope Leo XIV, the manager’s own efforts have somehow escaped national notice. But Venable, one of two Black managers in Major League Baseball along with Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has proved to be the steady hand for a team well ahead of schedule.

The franchise’s home on 35th and Shields, desolate and desperate, has found new life. And Venable, not the Pontiff, has been the one to deliver the South Side hope.

“Will’s personality is such where he’s very calm and measured,” said Bud Black, who managed the San Diego Padres while Venable played for them from 2008-2015. “But there’s an intensity there.

“When you’re next to him in the dugout, you can see an intensity in him. When he’s at the bat rack, when he’s preparing to hit, you can see the look in his eye, the competitive spirit.”

In many ways, Venable was born for this. Raised in San Rafael, California, in the heart of Marin County, he’s the elder son of Max Venable — who spent 12 years as an outfielder and designated hitter for four MLB clubs. Will’s summers were spent where Dad was, allowing him to immerse himself in clubhouse life.

When Max played winter ball in the Dominican Republic, his wife, Molly, brought along her sons Will and Winston (who spent brief time with the NFL’s Chicago Bears before a four year-career in the Canadian Football League). After Max signed with the Chiba Lotta Marines in the Japanese league, the family went with him. While Max finished out his career, Molly home-schooled their sons.

The standard story would have Will Venable pining for the day he could reach the majors. But he wanted no part of it.

It wasn’t an act of rebellion. There was just … something else.

“I was so fixated on being in the NBA and being a player,” he said. “I had just such a deep love for basketball. I could not envision my life without basketball, ever.”

His fixation paid off. Venable’s stellar four years at San Rafael High School earned the attention of then-Princeton coach John Thompson III. But one parent made sure he kept with baseball. This was Molly, not Max. It wasn’t until Will’s senior year in 2000-01 that he turned away from the game, choosing to run track. Baseball could have ended there.

On Will’s basketball recruiting trip to Princeton, Max brought him into the office of Scott Bradley. A veteran of nine MLB seasons, he had become Princeton’s head baseball coach in 1998 — a position he holds to this day.

Years later, Bradley remembered Max telling him about Will, “I think at some point, he’s going to want to play.”

By Will’s own account, this was always the plan. But there were basketball and the rigors of an Ivy League school to deal with (he graduated with a degree in anthropology in 2005). Even playing one sport here could be a humbling experience, but two?

Nearing the end of his freshman year, Venable believed he could do it — or at least try. A visit to Bradley meant going out to the batting cage. He hadn’t been in there for quite some time, and it showed. But soon came line drive after line drive.

“The best hitter on our team just left the cage,” Bradley told his assistant.

Venable was not Bradley’s best hitter as a sophomore in 2003. After starting late and with limited at-bats, he batted just .244 for the Tigers. Still, through struggle, Bradley could see him adjust to breaking balls thrown by Division I pitchers. Again, the coach said Venable would be their future star.

Max, who was embarking on a coaching career in the minor leagues, would help. In the coming years, the two spent time on the phone talking through the nuances of the sport. And they met up for a coaching session in Dayton in 2004, when Max served as the hitting coach for the Cincinnati Reds’ High-A affiliate.

“I had this amazing father who is the best dad you could ever have,” Venable said, “and he never really coached me growing up. He was always away. I was doing basketball things.

“Once I got more serious about baseball and then would visit him, it was awesome because we kind of caught up on lost time.” (Later on, Max would serve as his son’s hitting coach in the minor leagues twice — first at Single-A Fort Wayne, and then in Triple-A Portland)

Venable left Princeton a Tigers legend. Drafted by the Orioles in the 15th round following his junior year, it was best to hold off turning pro. As a senior in 2004-05, he became the second player to ever be named All-Ivy League in both basketball and baseball (fellow Princeton alumnus and future Padres teammate Chris Young was the first). Venable, having graduated, signed with the Padres following his selection in the seventh round in 2005.

He arrived to the major leagues in August 2008 and remained with the Padres for the next seven years. Despite a standout 2013 season (22 home runs, 22 stolen bases), his career OPS sat at a pedestrian .719 when he retired in 2016. By his own account, his inquisitive nature and forever search for an edge did not serve him well.

“I chased feelings instead of being consistent and sticking with something,” Venable said, looking back. “I’m not proud of how much I tinkered.”

Still, his smarts had earned him notice. When he joined the Cubs as a special assistant in 2017, general manager Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein — still running the show as the president of baseball operations — gave him a first-hand look into the front office. But the following season was when Venable realized where he could do the most good: He was given the chance to move down to the field as the team’s first-base coach.

Little did he realize where this would lead.

Since their time together as players in San Diego, Venable, Young and Nick Hundley said that “one of these days, we’re going to find our way back together as teammates in another form.” It happened in Texas.

After serving as the Boston Red Sox’s bench coach for the 2021 season, Venable joined the pair in November 2022 after Young, now general manager of the Rangers, brought him on as “associate manger” to Bruce Bochy. With Hundley already on board as Young’s special assistant, Venable got his wish, and then some.

In 2023, the Rangers won the World Series. For some time now, Venable had shooed away offers from other clubs, withdrawn his consideration from potential managerial roles. Seen as an heir apparent to Bochy, then 69 years old, he now sensed a new spark in the man, a desire to keep on going.

Coming to Texas had been about succession, about winning alongside his friends. But it was time to go.

But to … the White Sox? Those White Sox?

In Getz’s first year as general manager, the team had reached an historic low, losing 121 games in 2024. But his plan to bring the team’s operation into the modern era with modern methods, driven by “high-quality people,” drew Venable in and kept him there.

“The idea that the team had been in a tough spot the last couple years, that really wasn’t off-putting at all,” said Venable, who was named Chicago’s manager on Oct. 31, 2024. “I was just really confident that this organization was headed in the right way. I wanted to be part of something special.”

Now the Sox are on the precipice of just that. After beginning the season 6-13, Chicago has found its footing — at least for now.

Should the White Sox’s division lead hold, the nation might get a glimpse of what Black once saw from Venable deep into October.