Will Venable has put himself in the thick of the AL Manager of the Year race, and the path is pretty clear: the White Sox have to finish the job.
Chicago sits atop the division at 67-61, and that alone gives Venable a real edge as the season heads into its final stretch. But the race isn’t standing still.
The Red Sox are just two games back, a team that was 37-47 at the end of June before surging into the wild-card picture after the All-Star break under interim manager Chad Tracy. Kevin Cash also remains a major factor, with Tampa Bay holding first place in the AL East.
If Venable is going to lock up the award, the White Sox need to win the division.
That starts with finding one more arm to steady a staff that’s been wearing down fast. Since the beginning of August, Venable has had to juggle openers, starters and relievers just to keep games moving.
He has already squeezed out two wins with nothing but relievers on the mound, but that kind of improvisation can only carry so far. Chicago needs a pitching answer in September.
Luis Castillo has given the club a solid lift since the trade deadline, but the White Sox need more help than that. The two names that matter here are Davis Martin and Drew Thorpe.
Martin, who’s working back from a blistered finger, needs to resemble the early-season version that looked like a Cy Young candidate: an 8-1 record from March through May, a 2.00 ERA, 71 strikeouts, 14 walks, and only three home runs allowed. He was commanding the ball with the kind of presence that made him look far more seasoned than he was.
If the time off resets him, Chicago could have a huge piece back for the stretch run.
If not, Thorpe becomes the next option. He would have to be the pitching equivalent of Tristan Peters: an overlooked, surprising workhorse who shows up when nobody expects it.
The problem is timing. Thorpe is still making his way back, has only 22 innings since 2024, and began his recovery just over a month ago.
Before TJS, he had only thrown nine inconsistent games. Asking him to hit the ground running is a lot.
Still, if the White Sox drop a series to the Mets, that could push the timeline. And if Thorpe can give Chicago at least three starts that get into the fifth inning while keeping them in position to win, that would be a major boost.
Venable also has to clean up the mistakes that have cost Chicago before. His roster management has been sharp at times, especially with platoons and pinch-hitting, but there have been a couple of glaring slips.
The most damaging came in the August 7 loss to the Guardians, when he lost track of mound visits and forced Noah Schultz off the mound early in an eventual 8-2 defeat. Another costly call came in the first White Sox-Cubs game at Wrigley, when he didn’t walk Pete Crow-Armstrong to start the 10th even though the game was tied and PCA’s run wouldn’t have mattered.
Venable has owned his bad decisions, but he can’t afford another one.
And above everything else, Chicago has to keep winning. The White Sox have five divisional series left, and those games will shape everything.
Taking at least eight of those 16 would matter a lot, though the bar should be higher than that. Beyond the division matchups, the schedule also includes four teams with records of .500 or worse, excluding the Tigers and Guardians.
Chicago needs to win 10 of those 15 games, plain and simple.
If the White Sox can stack those 18 wins, they should at least stay level with Boston. But if Venable wants the Manager of the Year award, the finish has to belong to Chicago, not the Red Sox. If Boston ends up with more wins, Tracy becomes the clear choice.
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For a White Sox club trying to sort out the catcher spot over the final stretch, Teels return to the lineup picture carries obvious significance. Getting him back to full health would give the team a steadier option behind the plate, but the rehab assignment is the first checkpoint, and the bigger question is whether he can stay healthy long enough to matter in the seasons last weeks. [Read more 🡒]