New White Sox manager Will Venable anticipates keeping Grady Sizemore as part of his coaching staff

Will Venable is a busy man se days. new manr of Chicago White Sox is learning his way around organization. He is talking to his new players and working with front office on its offseason plans.

As Venable assembles his first coaching staff with Chicago, he has at least one name in mind: Gry Sizemore, interim manr for White Sox at end of last season.

“re'll be a role for him,” Venable said Friday after slipping on his new . 1 Chicago jersey during a news conference at Guaranteed Rate Field. “I think it's going to be about how to best utilize him and how to best complement his skillset.”

Venable, 42, has never been a major league manr before, and he is stepping into a daunting rebuilding project . Pedro Grifol was fired in August and Sizemore ran team rest of way as White Sox went 41-121 to break post-1900 major league record for losses in a season.

Venable was an associate manr for Texas for past two years, helping Rangers win 2023 World Series. He left that position last month when he agreed to take top job in Chicago, and it sounds as if everyone is getting along swimmingly — so far.

“re’s so many decisions that go in every day as a general manr,” White Sox GM Chris Getz said, “and what I’ve ticed in this short period of time is I'm comfortable calling Will about any one of those subjects and talking it through. And that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for a partner in this, and I think it’s a pretty good sign that it’s alrey as natural as it is.”

Venable and Getz are both former big leaguers. Venable was an outfielder during his nine years in majors with San Diego, Texas and Los Angeles Dodgers. Venable's far, Max, played parts of 12 seasons in majors, and also was a mir league manr and coach.

Will Venable said versity he faced as a player — difficulty of making to majors and staying re — helped prepare him for his new job's challenges.

“I feel like William's a good communicator,” Max Venable said, “so I feel like that's a good trait to have. I just feel like, too, that's he's pretty honest, and I feel like players just want someone that's honest with m.”

Before he became a big leaguer, Will Venable played baseball and basketball while majoring in anthropology at Princeton. He was an all-Ivy League performer in each sport.

Venable said his education at Princeton has helped him throughout his baseball career. He wrote his college sis on cultural differences of baseball in Japan and United States.

“I think w when you're talking about communicating with a diverse set of people and what I h to do as a player and communicating with people from different places, it's absolutely helped me,” he said.

Venable also has worked for crosstown Cubs and was Boston's bench coach in 2021 and ‘22, managing Red Sox for one game in 2021 when Alex Cora attended a gruation and for six in ’22 when Cora tested positive for coronavirus. Venable interviewed with White Sox before Grifol was hired in vember 2022.

This time, it worked out.

“This is an opportunity to continue to help build and be part of foundation that's alrey being laid here,” Venable said. “And I kw that every one of se jobs is challenging. Every group going into every year has ir work cut out for m, and I'm excited for challenge that this group presents.”

Also Friday, White Sox anunced y h agreed to a mir league contract with right-hander Justin Dunn, who will report to big league spring training.