The White Sox have officially announced that bench coach Rick Renteria will replace Robin Ventura as their manager. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report the move. The White Sox had a meeting with Ventura last night, at which he intended to resign, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter link).
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“Rick is incredibly well respected within the game as one of the top baseball men,” said GM Rick Hahn in a statement (via Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune on Twitter). “He is a knowledgeable teacher of the game who loves to develop players and spends hours watching video looking for any nuance that gives us an edge. He is well respected within the clubhouse, and his ability to communicate in English and Spanish is a real plus as he interacts with our players.”
Nightengale reported Wednesday that the White Sox were hoping to re-sign Ventura, whose contract would expire at season’s end, if he wanted to return. But Ventura is content to move on, per Van Schouwen, who adds that the 49-year-old’s relationship with the organization is “amicable” and devoid of hard feelings.
Ventura, a former third baseman who spent the majority of his 16-year major league career with the White Sox, took over their dugout in 2012. Unfortunately for Ventura and the club, his stint as its manager hasn’t been nearly as successful as his playing days were, though it’s not as if Ventura has been given excellent rosters during his five years as Chicago’s skipper.
Under Ventura, the White Sox have gone 375-433 with only one above-.500 campaign and no playoff berths, thereby extending their postseason drought to eight years. The Ventura-led Sox got off to an excellent start this year with a season-best 24-12 mark on May 13, but they’ve gone just 54-71 since and now own the American League’s fifth-worst record (78-83).
In Renteria, the White Sox have someone with previous managerial experience in the city of Chicago. Renteria oversaw a rebuilding Cubs team that finished 73-89 in 2014, and the 54-year-old has drawn praise this season from Ventura and other White Sox coaches, notes Van Schouwen. Renteria is also a fluent Spanish speaker, which is an obvious asset.
“He’s just a good baseball guy,’’ Ventura said of Renteria. “You see the work he puts in, all the little things he does and [what he can do for] our Latin guys. His interaction. He does a lot of stuff people don’t see. Gets there early, does video work. It’s been great.’’
While the White Sox are set to move forward with Renteria, it remains unknown which approach they’ll take during the offseason. A rebuild is possible, it seems, as left-handers Chris Sale and Jose Quintana would command enormous returns if the Sox were to trade one or both. However, owner Jerry Reinsdorf is reportedly reluctant to take that route, meaning Renteria could be at the helm of a team that aims to end its lengthy skid next season.
Kane was first to note (via Twitter) that Ventura had confirmed he would not return as the White Sox’ manager. FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi tweeted that the White Sox planned to announce Renteria as their manager on Monday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thank god
After a long exhausting search, we came to the conclusion our bench coach is the best choice in all of baseball to control our club. Thank you.
Yeah, and last year they blamed their crap club on the bench coach. This organization/ownership just really doesn’t get this whole Baseball thing.
Renteria should have been their coach from day 1 this season. He’s a good manager, only reason the Cubs let him go, is, well, because the best manager in baseball wanted to come to the North side!
How many rings does Maddon have?
After this year, one more than Ventura and Renteria combined!
He appeared in a World Series with a young overachieving rays team.
That team had a lot more talent than they are given credit for.
Ummm . . . would that be Z E R O ? Even the Cubs have more rings than that!
Wrong. The Cubs gave up a competent manager for a guy who doesn’t know that his top run producer and his second best table-setter should be swapped…. and hasn’t figured out that his offensive output has declined by 38% since that change in the lineup was made. Maddon is the most overrated manager in baseball.
Who has won 103 games this year.
I tend to believe most managers are rated too highly or lowly. I believe almost every manager in baseball would get practically the same on field results given the same roster…give or take a game or two. What it really comes down to is personality management. Joe Torre gets points with that dealing with Steinbrenner.
I think the difference might be more than a game or two, but I wouldn’t consider it a huge difference.
Overrated? Well he was manager of the year last year then wound up with the best record in baseball his year with 103 wins and the talk of baseball. So I think he knows so much more then you.
How is that manager looking now? Second straight year getting out coached in playoffs.
nice to see Renteria getting another chance. i liked what i saw from him with the Cubs
How much of that was Renteria and how much was it Cubs brass telling him how to manage the young talent?
Huh? He managed very little of the young talent that has made up their core over the past two seasons.
i don’t think you can separate the two, really. management gave him the players, he was in charge of day-to-day managing of the team.
But i’m also referring to actual in game management. he was no Joe Maddon in terms of strategist, and he make some ‘rookie mistakes’… but he never seemed completely over-matched or just downright passive
IMO he’s a better choice for the WS than some famous name or aging retread.
The only player Renteria had from this current starting lineup, was Rizzo. Soler came up late, didn’t have Russell, or Bryant, Baez was getting his first taste. Renteria did a fine job. Believe they were above 500 in the second half of that season.
Yes, their last losing season in what will be a long, long time.
Love Robin the player
But as for the manager…in the words of Ari Gold
“Get the f*** out”
^^ this
It won’t matter who manages this team if they do something about the roster. Theo Epstein provided the blueprint–tear it down already.
If they “don’t” do something about the roster.
Epstein could get away with it given that the Cubs are a cash cow and have a fan base that would support a team punting seasons like that. Sox are already a hard draw. If they do a total teardown…which would be something to behold given their pieces…itll be interesting to see what happens to attendance in 2017.
Now would be a great time to have planned and announced a new park thats north facing…get the team ready for that, etc. Give people something to get on the ground floor of.
The Sox aren’t drawing anybody using their current strategy of signing sub-prime free agents as starters. Young, developing players can inspire hope for the future. Their steady development can also be fun to watch for casual fans. Remember “the kids can play” slogan several years back? The bottomline is the Sox lack the talent to contend, and the only way to get tat without spending a fortune is to hoard prospects and turn them into big leaguers.
I completely agree, but next season won’t be the “these kids can play” type year. It’ll be them slogging through 105 losses possible, using the Luis Valbuena types that the Cubs used.
Sox fans are savvy and realistic. They understand what a rebuild entails, and I think most of us are on-board with it. We all know the Sox under KW have been pretending to be an “all-in” club. All-in means you sign Cruz or Cespedes when you need an impact bat in the outfield, not Austin freaking Jackson.
Luis Valbuena was more valuable by fwar his last year than frazier was this year and was close the prior year with 330 something plate appearances. The cubs had lots of awful players, Valbuena wasn’t actually one of them.
I’ll grant you that Sox fans are savy. They also tend to voice displeasure with not showing up in droves. It’s actually something I find authentic….as opposed to the northside where the game on the field is more of a sideshow to the actual Wrigley Field experience. Sox fans want to win…and they hold the team accountable to it.
I’d actually be really curious to know the answer to their attendance situation staying the course vs. blowing it up. They are 26th in mlb; ahead of (Miami, Cleveland, Oakland, and Tampa). Their team is already bad and not really much to bring out fans, so would being worse really even make that much of a difference? In addition to whether or not it’d make much difference, could that be offset, at least partially, by a lower payroll that’d accompany a team that is blowing it up?
I absolutely get your point, they are struggling to get people to care as is, but I think it’d be interesting to see if blowing it up would really change things that much.
Almost all teams who go the full rebuild way see a decent drop in attendance. So without a doubt the Sox attendance would drop most likely putting them in the bottom couple teams for attendance.
The main reason the Sox are in Limbo is ownership. Jerry sucks. He won’t spend when the team is going for it, but doesn’t want to take the dip in attendance that comes with a full rebuild.
Also, the Sox could spend like the Tigers, but Jerry is more interested in making money. I mean he is in his 80’s, why would you go through 3-5 years of loosing for a maybe shot at being good. Push the payroll $150 plus for a couple years and truly go for it while you have Sale, Quintanta, Eaton, Abreu, and Frazier in their primes.
All of last offseason I was waiting for the impact offseason signing, but of course it never came. It makes no sense to trade for Lawrie and Frazier, and then sign scrubs like jackson, Latos, and Rollins. We needed Desmond or Cespedes, but wouldn’t spend the money.
Honestly, the White Sox are one of the few teams that might see a slight bump in attendance if they do the rebuild correctly. Based on what they could get from just a Sale/Quintana deal (or both), they would be able to bring in some very exciting young positional talent, which we haven’t seen in a long while (excluding Tim Anderson). Personally, I think it could excite the fan base and actually give them something fun to watch. Either way, what’s the worst that can happen? Their attendance drops from 26th to 28th? Like you said, the money they save from payroll alone will more than likely make up the difference. They’re worried about the wrong thing if they’re avoiding a rebuild because of monetary reasons. The only reasons for them to actively avoid a rebuild is because Kenny Williams is still on the payroll and is a horrible talent evaluator.
Game attendance has never meant less to mlb teams. Their income is less reliant on it with the tv deals being what they are. That said, games are expensive…so casual fans will question where they spend their money.
Great news!
Breaking news: Ventura fires entire ChiSox organization, goes home
Sorry to be a killjoy, but this accomplishes nothing. As bad as Ventura is, Renteria is not an upgrade.
What are you talking about? Renteria was a hot commodity when the Cubs hired him, if it weren’t for Maddon, he’d still have the job. I like Renteria as a baseball guy.
The big question is if the rumors of Kenny Williams possibly being done are true.
For Sox fans, I hope so in terms of Kenny.
You do know he is the only living baseball GM in Chicago to have a championship ring, with a Chicago team, right?
C’mon, now! Do we really know Bill Veeck Sr. is deceased?
So? By your logic you probably think Theo is behind him because his rings werent from Chicago. Kenny has failure after failure in the decade plus since then
I dont want to come off defending KW too much…but his Sox tenure, even in the lesser seasons, has been more successful than any extended run in club history. The teams have just been frustratingly 81 win. They needed a system working a long time ago. Absolutely no reason they couldnt have a past decade that Detroit has had. The Tigers are constantly knocked for their system…but they keep getting it done. The Sox system has had Gordon Beckham and Chris Sale….and actually some bullpen pieces. Kind of a weird organization with no real m.o. That has to change.
I think you need to stop off at the store and purchase a clue. During his very brief tenure with the Cubs, he displayed more competency in handling strategic decisions during games than Joe Maddon could dream to do. He made some mistakes, but you expect that from any rookie…including managers. If he’d been given the same sort of talent-laden roster Maddon was, Renteria would have lead the Cubs to at least a NL pennant last year. The fact that he lead the team in not losing 90 games with the horrible roster he had in 2014 (particularly after the July trade deadline) was a mild miracle.
This not good news. All the Sox are doing is swapping the bad manager with another inexperienced one. This type of managerial choice is typical for this ownership/front office. Bring in a manager that has proven track record is not what Reinsdorf does. Any legit candidate will want to be paid, be able to pick his entire coaching staff and have some control over choosing the roster. All of that is a none starter with Reinsdorf. This choice only proves is the status quo remains and Sox will continue the mediocrity.
Who do you think are better choices? That’s not a loaded question I’m just curious as to who else you think is better? Bud Black? I liked him a lot.
In the WS case it might just be a situation where they want the least amount of disruption?
Dave Martinez, Sandy Alomar
Renteria is a fine rebuilding manager..he has experience with that on the northside.
Until they also replace the psych ward that is their upper management, it’s not going to matter who their manager is.
I came across something yesterday that Kenny Williams will not be attending the press conference because he will be gone as well
That would be awesome if true.
Hey,
Does anyone know how much the MLB manager has to do with minor league coaching? Do they say “this is the direction we are taking the club and therefore I need you to develop players with this philosophy? Or does the GM do that? Or is nothing done at all because they’re in effect partners not owners?
It would be interesting to see how much influence MLB clubs have on who plays, how they are coached etc. anyone know?
Likely depends on team and degree. We’ve never seen a day when managers are more, in effect, extensions of the front office. As far as coaching…the front office data might reveal trends…but itd still be a pitching coach..the video…whatever that would correct that.
Ehhh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say, “We’ve never seen a day when managers are more, in effect, extensions of the front office.” It wasn’t really until the 1960s that GMs became a thing in the MLB. Prior to that, the team’s manager usually handled most of the “front office” work. Owners usually only got involved when larger than normal salaries were required, or some special circumstance was involved.
Thats true. I guess I was just speaking about the modern era. Whitey Herzog did both GM and manage the Cardinals. But it is a very modern idea when we’re talking about clearly defined roles merging. I’d say a manager used to have more pull with a front office because the front office was typically more “baseball people” oriented. I think now we’re seeing managers that are in effect the front office clubhouse rep. Seattle is a good example of this.
Most decisions regarding minor league players are made by the front office and their support staff, with input from head scouts and respective minor and big league managers.
Every organization has a Director of Player Development who’s responsible both for making minor league roster decisions and staffing the minor league coaching system, as well as hitting and pitching coordinators who handle day-to-day, well, coordination of what’s going on at each level of the minor league system. Those player development guys report in to the General Manager.
In a quality organization, the player development and big league staffs are on the same page in terms of priorities and how specific players might ultimately be deployed in the big leagues. But that often doesn’t actually happen in many organizations.
Did Renteria manage after Lou Pinella retired? I’m having a hard time picturing him right now
Right before Joe maddon.
He was the 3rd manager after Piniella, after Quade and Sveum.
More like the FO needs to all get fired and bring in new blood. A great manager would have accomplished the same thing Ventura did with this Sox roster.
I think we just had our tip about the White Sox rebuild. Passing off the Renteria seems like a clear sign of that.
Renteria…will be fantastic as the White Sox manager. Liked what I saw from him on the North Side, but fell victim to the Maddon TB departure/Cubs Hire. He should have been manager since day 1
BTW I love the linked player that shows up on Robin Ventura’s baseball-reference link. LOVE it, haaa
Well, I know that the vultures–er, White Sox fans– are ecstatic, but as Robin is my all-time favorite player, I’m saddened. If he decides against taking another job, the game will be poorer for his absence.
No, it really won’t.
Robin lacks the experience and instincts to be an impactful manager. He really should have started off as a minor league skipper or bench coach.
How is it resigning if his contract expired?
I know, right?
I resigned from high school at the end of my senior year
I think the ChiSox can contend if they just add a few small pieces. They have a lot of good players, they just need youth, a new front office personnel, and a stadium that isn’t called Guaranteed Rate field with the logo a down arrow.
As a NY Mets fan and a great admirer of Ventura. I would welcome him back into the Mets fold as either a bench coach or better yet as a third base coach.
#LGM
Hope you beat the Giants and then sweep the Cubs again. Do us all a favor.
Hear hear
I have a good theory on why Renteria is the new headcoach and it is a good theory because I came up with this theory today as I was bored at work.
I think Ricjy Hanh wants to bring in more international players, mainly from Latin America. Having a Hispanic headcoach will give the Sox an advantage in recruiting and of course in communicating on the field.
Heck, the fact Renteria speaks Spanish might even improve Avi’s swing because Renteria can not curse him out in Spanish
Because renteria can now curse him out in Spanish?
Like the Sox haven’t been one of the leaders of bringing in international players for ages?
WS best course of action is to trade everyone except Eaton and Rodon.
Abreu, Frazier, Cabrera, Sale, Quintana, Robertson, etc will get enough return to restart this franchise on the right track.
No one on that roster should be off limits. If you’re willing to move Sale and Abreu, you might as well go full tilt if the price is right.
I am ok with that too. BTW I am not a WS fan. 😛
Anderson is the only good position player the Sox have developed in the minors since Joe Crede. The only high quality minor league position player we have in the entire system is Collins and he was just drafted last year. If we are going to add any present/near future high quality young stars it’s going to have to be from trading pitching or signing foreign (Cuban) free agents. The worst thing that hurts this organization is its inability to develop young quality position players.
Say it aint so.
Kenny Williams needs to go. As long as he’s around it won’t matter what talent you have, it won’t be a team.