Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers coaching staff has been an attractive destination for MLB teams with roles to fill.
Associate manager Will Venables is being pursued by the Chicago White Sox, according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman. The Sox are looking for a manager after losing 121 games in 2024.
Venable, who turns 42 on Tuesday, has been with the Rangers for the past two seasons and has served as Bochy’s second in command. For the past two years, Venables took over managerial duties any time Bochy was ejected from a game.
“No word it’s done or close yet, or even that he’s certain to accept if offered,” Heyman reported on social media Sunday evening.
Venables has been a candidate for other jobs before, including declining an offer to interview for the New York Mets manager’s job during the Rangers’ postseason run in 2023.
Venables isn’t the only Rangers coach the White Sox have shown interest in. Bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker was a candidate but the Dallas Morning News reported last week that he will remain with Texas.
Rangers hitting coach Tim Hyer left for the same job with the Atlanta Braves last week.
Venables, who has a great reputation around the league and inside the Rangers clubhouse, has been perceived as the Rangers manager-in-waiting. Bochy, 69, is about to start the third and final year of his current contract with the club. Bochy has made it clear that he doesn’t foresee managing deep into his 70s.
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