Chris Sale has seen enough winning baseball to know when a clubhouse leader is the real thing, and his read on Will Venable has been spot on.
Speaking during the Braves’ recent stop at Rate Field, Sale praised the White Sox manager’s steady presence and his ability to connect with a wide range of people. “Just the way he’s even-keel.
He’s never going to really be overwhelmed. I just think he can relate to anybody from anywhere,” Sale told MLB.com.
“When I saw he got the job here, I knew things were going to be on the up and up … I thought this was a good move.”
That kind of endorsement matters, especially coming from someone who spent 16 years building a reputation for excellence. And Sale’s view of Venable isn’t some isolated opinion. Around the White Sox, the belief is that the manager has been one of the biggest reasons the organization has found its footing again.
The Sox enter Friday night’s series opener at Target Field with a 2 1/2-game lead over the Guardians in the American League Central and 29 games left in the regular season. Their playoff push resumes against the Twins, and the group is trying to push through the first real fatigue of a full 162-game grind after sitting atop the division for 75 days. It’s a young team, and even a loose, confident one can feel the weight of the moment.
Venable has kept the message simple: stay present, stay focused, and don’t let the moment swallow the task at hand.
“There’s no shying away from the position we are in,” Venable told MLB.com during a recent interview. “I understand the questions and these are the things that we are going to be talking about. I’m so proud of our group and happy to be in the position that we are talking about.
“We also have to figure out how for it not to be a distraction. There is an objective and it is to win tonight and that’s all there is.
It’s going to be up to me and the leadership in our group, in our player group, to find a way to be focused. These are real conversations and questions we need to have answered.”
The White Sox already showed what that can look like in the Texas series. After a flat Monday in an 11-2 loss to the Rangers, Tristan Peters and Miguel Vargas both acknowledged the team’s unusual lack of energy afterward.
The response came quickly. The Sox bounced back to win the final two games of the series.
That’s been the through line under Venable all season: play hard, stay together, keep the focus tight. The players bought in and carried it.
Mets outfielder Luis Robert Jr., who played for Venable in ’25, described the manager’s effect in simple terms through interpreter Alan Suriel: “I thought he was great. He gave me and a lot of my teammates a lot of confidence.
He instilled that in us,” Robert said. “He said, ‘Just go out there and play hard, have fun,’ and I just really liked how he motivated the players.”
Venable said part of the job is making sure players stay grounded and supported.
“Keeping these guys on-line, it’s one of those things why we are here. Support these guys to be at their best,” Venable said.
“You just need people around you to tell you, you are doing a good job and that they believe in you. That’s part of our job, too.”
The White Sox have had plenty of good decisions under Chris Getz, but the choice to hire Venable before the ’25 season stands out above the rest. Assistant general manager Josh Barfield said the search was more demanding than expected, with roughly 10 candidates in the mix when the organization initially thought there might only be one or two.
“It was an enlightening process,” Barfield said. “But looking back, we got that one right.
“What he’s meant to this team, this organization. The atmosphere he’s created in the clubhouse, the way the players respect him, the way he has been a great partner on this side.”
That reputation has grown so much that Venable is now the favorite for AL Manager of the Year. More importantly for the White Sox, he has them in position for their first playoff berth since ’21.
White Sox bench coach Walker McKinven said the daily experience of working with Venable has made the whole operation better.
“Unbelievable human being to spend every single day with,” McKinven said. “That makes it fun, and that makes it easy to promote a good working environment for not only me but everyone here - players, coaches, support staff. Will's energy and Will's demeanor just kind of trickles out to the entire organization.”
Barfield said the organization believed Venable could handle both the rebuild and the payoff that comes with it, and that belief has only strengthened.
“So often you see the guy who takes you through the rebuild is not the guy who gets to take you to the finish line,” Barfield said. “We felt strongly he was qualified and [would] be really good at doing both. So far, he’s proven us right.”
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