While it’s been believed that White Sox manager Rick Renteria is only under contract through the upcoming 2019 season, general manager Rick Hahn revealed at the GM Meetings in Carlsbad, Calif. that Renteria quietly signed an extension at some point (Twitter link via James Fegan of The Athletic). Hahn didn’t specify when the deal was inked or how long Renteria is now under contract but did state that the 2019 season is no longer the final year of Renteria’s deal.
Renteria, 57 in December, signed what was reported as a three-year, $3.6MM contract to manage the ChiSox prior to the 2017 season. Now, it seems, he’s under contract through at least the 2020 campaign — if not longer.
The White Sox are 66 games under .500 (129-195) in Renteria’s first two seasons as the team’s skipper, but that’s hardly an indictment on his abilities as a manager, given the fact that the Sox have been conducting an aggressive rebuilding effort. Renteria was named manager just in time to see Chris Sale and Adam Eaton shipped out of town, and the vast majority of Chicago’s remaining talent was traded away for prospects in the next couple seasons of his tenure.
The Chicago front office, though, is clearly pleased with the manner in which Renteria runs the clubhouse, disseminates data and info to the team’s players and handles the Chicago media. Retaining Renteria will create some continuity for the current batch of young players as the Sox look to start supplementing the prospects they’ve accumulated with some big league additions on the trade and free-agent markets — perhaps as soon as this winter.
Good. It will be nice to see him reap the rewards of his hard work.
I hope he uses a little better judgement this year before he single out players in public on the issue of hustle. He was way off base on Tim Anderson last year. Avi also had an injury..
why
This would be like theBrowns extending H. Jackson. It’s a losing culture with him that must hange!
Huh?
Lol you do realize he has only been manager with the sox for 2 years? You don’t measure a manager based on wins and losses when you are in the early stages of a rebuild.
I’m not a sox fan but I think this is a good move for them, I don’t think it’ll be too long of a rebuild
This move comes from the people who traded a perennial all star pitcher for a .220 hitter that can’t play second base.
You’re really trolling here. Yoan was the 2nd best prospect in baseball when he was traded, every team was drooling over him.
And oh yeah, Michael Kopech was in that trade who was coming up their system looking like another Chris Sale before getting injured
No, he’s not trolling. He’s just a miserable Sox “fan.” Same stuff, different day.
i think all the losing is due less to the culture and more to the lack of talent on the rosters they’ve given him…
Agreed Strauss and sss847. Overrated, just like Williams.
In order to be overrated, you have to be rated highly in the first place.
Not necessarily. You could be considered average but realistically be terrible at something, and being called average would mean that you could be ‘overrated’
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Front Office can not get out of their own way when it comes to bad decisions. Renteria has NO business being a major league manager just like Kenny Williams NEVER had any business being a GM and let alone VP of Baseball Operations.
This franchise will go nowhere until Jerry Reinsdorf sells the team. Same goes with the Bulls.
Completely agree. Reinsdorf awards his cronies with unending/lifelong jobs. That obviously isn’t good for the fans.
“Organizations win championships, not players.”
The primary job of a big league manager during a major rebuild is: 1) develop the players, 2) promote a winning culture based on sound principles. Having been a Sox fan for 30+ years, and watching them over the years, I can honestly say Renteria has done a fine job. Wins are NOT important right now, because they aren’t going to win many games rebuilding a minor league system and a big league roster simultaneously. He’s being judged on how hard the team works, playing the game the right way, and buying in to what the team is about. He’s the right manager for the White Sox moving forward, and I’m glad he’s been extended.
renteria has developed players and promoted a winning culture in the same way that fred hoiberg has developed players and promoted a winning culture.
Care to elaborate? Not sure what your expectations are, but winning many games just isn’t an option during the early stages of a rebuild.
a little jibe at ownership just retaining their guy.
that being said, your post stated renteria’s #1 job is to develop players. so hows the development of moncada, giolito, engel, TA, yolmer, carson fulmer, covey, avi, and rodon going?
Just fine. Why would anyone say otherwise?
Just fine??? It’s absolutely terrible.
As a White Sox of 30+yrs this is not good at all.
Renteria is an awful manager. He has no idea how to use a bullpen and his line-ups are so bi-polar that these guys are getting no consistency to develop into roll.
Also- Renteria singles out players and removes them from games for “not hustling” yet Moncada can dog it around the base paths and is not held accountable. Accountability is something the Front Office threw out the window during the Kenny Williams era.
The development of TA, Yolmer, and Rodon is going very well. Moncada’s development has been fine. It’s amazing how quickly “fans” want to give up on him. He deserves AT LEAST another year before being judged.
Engel isn’t a major league player and no manager will change that. Giolito showed flashes last year but likely is a backend guy at best – and everyone with a brain knew that at the time of the trade. Fulmer has been trash since leaving college. Covey was a Rule 5 pick. Avi had a great 2017 and then played injured all of 2018. You’re really grasping at straws for some of these names. How about you wait until the actual talent starts reaching the bigs…
Got, you’re just trolling. As I said before, the Sox are two years into a major overhaul. That means they have a lot of you players who are developing. Saying Renteria’s an awful manager just makes you sound stupid. In fact, nothing you said made any sense.
I’m trolling? No- I’m making legitimate points. What did I say that makes no sense? I’m all ears.
Renteria was replaced be the Cubs when they had a shot at a manager that could make them a legit winner, and clearly were not completely secure with him taking these players to the next level.
He had ruffled the feathers of young guys like Rizzo with his ra-ra style.
I don’t wish to hate on the guy, but he’s a worse Terry Bevington imo.
Instead of taking the time to interview candidates after Ventura was let go. Williams picked a yes man, Renteria. KW couldn’t handle Ozzie, because Ozzie ran circles around KW in baseball knowledge. No way is KW gonna hire a guy who could make him look bad.
If you can’t see what I’m saying regarding Renteria and some serious flaws in his managing then I wish I had your set of eyes.
I love my White Sox and what Hahn has done is very good. There is a lot of talent. This is a big opportunity to put this franchise back on the map. The right coaching and player development staff is the most crucial part of this whole thing.
Past history on our player development and Renteria’s entire coaching career is below average at best.
Sox fan- Yes. Troll- No
Forgot your meds again?
that’s generous priggs. the development of gleyber torres, ronald acuna, juan soto, alex bregman, aaron judge etc. is going very well.
the development of white sox players who were either drafted in the first round or were former #1 prospects in baseball into league average or worse players is disappointing.. its not grasping at straws when its every pre-arb player on the roster besides reynaldo lopez & jace fry that failed to take a big step forward.
no one has been able to flash their ceiling for a consistent stretch or consistently play average to above average like they’re supposed to given their pedigree..
i see no evidence that rick renteria has been a great player developer in his white sox tenure and do not agree with the extension. if some of these guys post 5 WAR seasons, then i’ll eat my words and your unrelenting patience will be validated.
Again, most of the players you are referencing (former first rounders) were from the old regime. Everyone knows Kenny was horrible at drafting position players – likely because he focused solely on athleticism and gave no F’s about baseball skills. The organization clearly didn’t develop those players, but I’d absolutely fault the drafting philosophy more than the development team.
That being said, BOTH of those things have changed over the last couple years. The new players need to be given a chance to develop before you can write them off. Literally the only position player we’ve seen from this “new” front office/development approach is Moncada, and he’s learning at the big league level. Look at their top 30 prospects on MLB.com. 14 of the 30 are position prospects, and only two were in the organization before 2016 – Micker and Seby, and their only significant developments have come over the last 2 years, with the new regime.
Despite feeling like this rebuild has been going on forever, this is really only the start of year 3. It’s not “unrelenting patience,” it’s being realistic and knowing how a rebuild is supposed to work. People want to rush it and want everything to go perfectly and compete after 1 down year, but it just doesn’t happen that way. The Astros lost 100+ games 3 years in a row, lost 92 in year 4, and then finally turned in a winning record year 5. The Cubs lost 101, 96, and 89 over their first 3 years with Theo. If we’re striving to be like those organizations, competing for championships every year, we should expect at least one more 90-100 loss season, and if everything goes well, we’ll be competing for the playoffs in 2020.
My advice – Take a deep breath, understand that this is a process that takes time, and enjoy watching the young players come up. Eloy will be hitting bombs in no time.
i think we’re arguing a few different things here.
i am definitely excited about the new draft approach under hostetler and the developments of minor league players under chris getz as well as the minor league coaching staff. I don’t see how these changes can be attributed to renteria as he hasn’t been involved in the development of guys like luis gonzalez, laz rivera, etc.
just because kenny missed on some first rounders doesn’t mean that talent can’t be extracted and translated to game performance (what you were referring to with drafting athletes over baseball players – and ultimately why chris getz and nick hostetler have ascended).
i cannot and do not place credit or blame on rick renteria for what prospects do or do not do in the minor leagues. as a fan i can judge him on whether guys at the major league level correct the flaws in their games. i have not seen this at the major league level with the exception of TA’s defense gradually getting better.
2019 is another evaluation season, as rick hahn pegged 2020 as the first year to be competitive. however, the performance of the supposed future core pieces who have been in the majors under renteria’s tutelage warrant more skepticism than confidence at this point especially when you compare these guys to similar players of similar pedigree who are showing a lot of promise (e.g. Moncada vs. Torres). I don’t think my pessimism is off base, but I do hope your confidence is rewarded sooner rather than later.
It’s all part of the big picture.
“just because kenny missed on some first rounders doesn’t mean that talent can’t be extracted and translated to game performance”
That is correct. Talent can absolutely be extracted and translated into game performance, but it’s SIGNIFICANTLY harder when they don’t have legitimate baseball skills to go with the athleticism. These players were significantly more likely to flame out, and it’s hard to hold that against the development staff. They can only work with what they are given.
“as a fan i can judge him on whether guys at the major league level correct the flaws in their games. i have not seen this at the major league level with the exception of TA’s defense gradually getting better.”
Again, that’s part of the big picture and the reason I brought up the prospects. Rick can only work with the players he’s given by the GM. The players he has been given so far, outside of Moncada and Abreu to an extent, are from the old regime and/or place holders in the rebuild. No manager is going to turn the Matt Davidson’s of the world into legitimate baseball players at this point in their careers. The ship has already sailed on most of these guys. That’s why I’m saying I think it’s only fair to wait until he has some actual talent to work with before making final judgments.
“the performance of the supposed future core pieces who have been in the majors under renteria’s tutelage warrant more skepticism than confidence at this point”
Who do you think these future core pieces are? The only potential ones I see on offense are Moncada and Anderson (I’m not including the pitching staff as I think the pitching coach is significantly more important in their development than the manager). Anderson is getting better. His defense was excellent most of last year, and he more than doubled his pitiful walk percentage from 2017. Obviously he still has a long way to go with the bat, but he as at least shown signs of life. As for Moncada, he obviously didn’t have the year we all wanted. He was also just a rookie. Despite what we’ve seen from guys like Soto and Acuna, that shouldn’t be expected as it’s not the norm. If he repeats his 2018 next year and doesn’t show any signs of improvement, then I’ll start to be concerned about him. Right now, it’s way too early for me to be legitimately worried.
Sorry, you not really a real fan of baseball if you think Renteria is an awful manager.
i never said he was an awful manager. i disagreed with the opinion that he’s done a good job developing players and promoting a winning culture for the white sox and i disagreed with their decision to give him an extension. the entire argument right now is whether renteria has done a good job developing players.
priggs – the future core pieces sold to the fans by the front office in an effort to endorse and endure the rebuild (that are currently on the major league roster) are: TA, yoan moncada, reynaldo lopez, lucas giolito, michael kopech (injured) and possibly carlos rodon. the rest of the guys are ‘throw it against the wall and see what sticks’ types. some have impressed (jace fry, omar narvaez) and some have not (carson fulmer, charlie tilson).
i don’t think its unfair for example to set the expectations for moncada higher than davidson. From what i’ve seen of Moncada specifically, the idea that he can reach what his ceiling was supposed to be seems like wishcasting. the other players have the luxury of lower expectations, but that doesn’t mean their performance and their distance from their player ceiling is any less disappointing. i hope i’m wrong, i hope ricky can get them there and we see a stretch of playoff runs on the southside. but i’m a little skeptical at this point. faith is a good thing, but so are results.
You realize that Hahn is the GM, right?
@ socalsoxfan78- Hahn was mentioned in the post. What would have you think otherwise? Happy to clarify.
Good to see him get some support after getting screwed by the Cubs.
There hasn’t been a wing season since Ozzie Guillan left…..seriously need to consider bringing him back!
Good move by Hahn. I guess all the anti Renteria ‘fans’ forgot that the contract is not guaranteed or anything, they could fire him tomorrow if they wanted and owe him nothing.Renteria is a good manager
Good move for the Sox. In the one year he managed the Cubs I thought he was a pretty decent manager. Just didn’t have the star power of Joe Maddon.
Cubs still will regret they let him go
Kopech injury sure put a damper on a possible 2019 playoff run in an awful division where Cleveland could be sellers. I can stomach R.R. thru 2020 season; Counsell would be my first choice to replace Ricky. 2019 first season we don(t have to hear that ol’ redleg coot Hawk talking about Yastremski. WOOHOO!!!! Give Cleveland Moncada, Anderson & Giolito for Jose Ramirez. Sign Machado & Markakis this Winter. Land Arenado next winter. That oughta do it.