DALLAS -- By way of his title of bench coach, Walker McKinven will be Will Venable's right-hand man on the South Side. But anyone who truly comes to occupy that role for Venable's administration will have to earn it anew.
With seven incumbents from the end of last season returning to the White Sox coaching staff, McKinven and new assistant hitting coach Joel McKeithan are the only new additions, and Venable admitted he wasn't overly familiar with either until the "collaborative" process of building out his staff began. The White Sox had signaled to their pitching coaches that they were happy with that side of the operation at the end of the season, and Chris Getz talked up the addition of Ryan Fuller and Grady Sizemore's new offensive coordinator role -- described as more geared toward advance work, game planning and lineup construction than grinding in the batting cage -- as the necessary upgrades to the hitting side.
But it's still providing the unique dynamic where one of the few new additions to the coaches room is the guy who outranks everyone.
"With the relationships built and things in place, me as a first time manager, it’s important to have them on board," Venable said of the holdovers. "This isn’t the first time I’ve been on board into a new organization. It’s a different role, it’s the first time I’ve been a manager, but when you’re someone that’s new to the group it’s about being open-minded to ideas that are there, and I hope they’ll be open-minded to me as well."
With the exception of Ethan Katz, who has a strong working relationship with Brian Bannister that dates back to their time with the Giants, all of these holdovers were placed on the coaching staff by Getz, who was not inclined to respond to the 121-loss season by tearing down what he had already built.
"I know that it's very easy to point at the wins and loss record of last year, there's so many different factors that go into it, but we're really happy as a whole with the group that we have," Getz said. "You don't want to make changes for the sake of making change. You try to support the coaches the best we can to ultimately serve our players, and we feel really good about our groups."
Perhaps the easiest way to understand such coaching carryover from possibly the worst MLB season ever is to remember that this front office is more likely to describe the 2024 campaign as "clarifying," than "nauseating." Neither of their first two trades from last February have produced a big league regular as of yet, since Getz made it clear the Sox still intend to add to their right field mix rather than simply let Dominic Fletcher and Zach DeLoach duel for the right to be Austin Slater's platoon partner. Still, it largely wasn't their vision of a contending White Sox team curdling into a horrendous farce last year, but rather a stirring testimony of how much there was to fix, and the members of the coaching staff they wanted to move on from were all fired in August.
Regardless of the miserable nature of the White Sox' present situation, lack of budget allocation for free agency spending and the unclear timetable for anything resembling contention, Getz believes that sound decisions strung together will eventually produce a strong team. That said, it would be nice if it didn't take forever.
"When you are in a rebuild like this, you have to look at ways to accelerate it," Getz said.
Which brings to the forefront what Sox leadership is really busy with these days: trying to coax a suitable offer for Garrett Crochet, and maybe some others. At this point, every seriously interested team has had multiple go-rounds of proposing frameworks for a Crochet package to the Sox, with a few three-team discussions mixed in. Getz didn't speak like someone on the verge of a deal, but also the added incentive that Dylan Cease looking effective and healthy in spring training brought to his negotiations don't sound necessary with Crochet.
"He’s a guy that went out last year and has proven that he’s a top pitcher in our game," Getz said. "The market comes to you. It does. I think we showed we were very patient last year with Dylan Cease and trying to find the right fit for us. Going through that last year is only going to benefit us this year. Understanding the behaviors and the predictive natures of other organizations allows us to be a little more measured this offseason."
With Crochet not requiring much of a sales job, Getz exerted more effort talking up the trade interest that's been shown in Luis Robert Jr., even if his description doesn't contravene multiple league evaluators depicting him as more of an intriguing buy-low option than someone who can draw a rebuild-accelerating return at present value.
"Refreshingly, Robert has gotten a lot of attention as well; that speaks to the talent that Luis Robert brings to the table at his floor, just because of the defense and the baserunning and the power, he can be an above-average player," Getz said. "The tools haven't changed. Obviously, the injury last year was disruptive to his production, but the reason there's so much interest is because maybe a team feels like they can capture something that perhaps didn't show up last year."
In the age of bat tracking, there are means for teams to verify that Robert is Robert beyond his triple-slash line, and if a team meets the price the White Sox have set, they have no reason to be locked into the notion that any trade this winter would be selling low. But clearly no one has met that price just yet.
"I think it's an appropriate price tag based on the talent that he brings to the table," Getz said.
-- Getz was open but noncommittal on the notion of bringing in a veteran shortstop to bridge to Colson Montgomery. Brooks Baldwin defended well at that spot this past season, albeit mostly in the minors, and Lenyn Sosa went to winter ball with the intention of improving his play there, though he's currently sidelined in Venezuela after taking a hit by pitch to his left hand.
"We expect him to compete for a spot in spring training," Getz said of Montgomery.
-- Maybe sit down before reading this one first, but the White Sox are not expecting Roki Sasaki to choose them during his recently opened posting window.
--As Matthew Thompson could already attest to personally, the White Sox are not philosophically opposed to a crosstown trade. At least not until the Cubs join their division, at least.
"We've got to do what's best for the White Sox and if that means we knock on the door of the Cubs, so be it," Getz said. "They have a talented group that's working it's way toward the major leagues. If we feel like it can help the White Sox then we'll do it. But there are other organizations that have a lot of talent throughout the organization that we might match up better with."
