ORLANDO, Fla. -- Will Venable ended last season realizing that he could simplify his messaging, and it's a goal that he's free to continue pursuing throughout his first full, standard offseason as the incumbent White Sox manager.
Assuming his coaching staff is complete, there are fewer people to hire, which means fewer phone calls and interviews. At the same time, there's far more familiarity with the roster, so offseason communication is less about introductions, and more about checking in.
But what also simplifies the messaging, at least when it came to his 20-minute session at the Winter Meetings on Monday, is that the front office hasn't given him a whole lot to talk about. The team has yet to announce the remaining new coaches or the reported signing of Anthony Kay, and even if Kay were officially on board, they'd still have five open 40-man roster spots to play with before Wednesday's Rule 5 draft.
"For right now, the focus is on the guys that we have," Venable said at one point. It was in response to James' question about whether the improvement of corner infield defense can come from within, but it also applied to all sorts of other players. Until players get jostled out of their previous roles by a new addition, he's mostly left to reiterate on the situations of players whose performances have already been largely disseminated.
Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke are among the guys who have to "take a step forward." The Kyle Teel/Edgar Quero timeshare at catcher and DH is "a puzzle we'll have to figure out," especially since Andrew Benintendi threatens to require more time at the latter spot, and neither catcher has been directed to expand his skill set into another position.
Is Miguel Vargas more of a third baseman or a first baseman? Is Brooks Baldwin an outfielder now above all else? Again, the answers to both hinge on who else shows up, although Venable wants Vargas to maintain his versatility, while he'd like to throw Baldwin some positional consistency.
Venable's public persona lacks a freewheeling streak that would add some welcome sizzle to his media sessions, but the familiar, samey nature of his comments are mostly reflective of his positioning downstream from an over-deliberate front office. Until the next wave of prospects arrive to change the distribution of playing time, or until Chris Getz makes moves that inspire him to finally voice legitimate, grand aspirations instead of a general desire for incremental improvement, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the guy with less control of the roster to stick his neck further out with bold proclamations.
That's not to say that Venable avoided all insight. He emphasized an area of improvement for Colson Montgomery that hasn't been explored:
"I think a real opportunity for Colson is to make progress in his baserunning. [He made] a couple mistakes out there that I think he wants back, but with as natural an athlete he is and as instinctual a baseball player he is, he should be an excellent baserunner in my opinion, and so that's another area where I think we can take steps with Colson."
And he doesn't treat the closer as a cure for what ailed the Sox in one-run game, even if he wouldn't turn down more solid late-inning options:
"I think the idea of a traditional closer is great, if you have the sixth-, seventh-, eighth-inning guys also. Leverage aside, you just want to have good players and good pitchers, and so that's certainly something that Getzy and the group's working extremely hard to get.
"I also don't think that the one-run games are just because of the bullpen. Every single phase of the game contributes to those one-run losses, and so I think we just look at it holistically as we need to get better in every area and are excited to do it."
Now this could be a talking point that Venable will happily revise if there's anything to Scott Merkin's report that the White Sox have interest in Pete Fairbanks, but nobody would charge him with perjury for changing his tune. There's value in having simple, consistent messaging, but not if it's because the messages seldom change.
An update on coaches
While Venable didn't speak about José Leger or any other coaches who might be rounding out his staff, he did expound on two themes that emerged during the search.
Not every coach is perfect and everyone is going to have their different skill sets. So you can draw up the exact version of a coach you want, but you know you're probably not going to find that person.
So as we were evaluating, the two big areas that each of the guys that we have hired so far have hit: one, their ability to communicate and build relationships with players, I think that's probably the most important thing. You could be the smartest dude in the world, but if you can't build that connection with players and get them to buy into what you're saying, it really doesn't matter. That's a big one.
You look at Zach Bove and Derek Shomon, those guys are very good at connecting with players. And the second piece is just the competency and being able to use information to find adjustments to make with players, and be able to execute that. And certainly really excited about our coaches being able to do those things as well.
Prior to Venable's session, Royals manager Matt Quatraro and Marlins manager Clayton McCullough took their turns at the table, presenting an opportunity to ask about the coaches the White Sox poached.
"We knew it was only a matter of time until we lost Zach to an opportunity," Quatraro said about Bove, who was his assistant pitching coach for the last three years.
"He did a phenomenal job for us. He's a very process-oriented guy. He's a very forward thinker. He's somebody that challenges the norms. I think he was somebody that we were lucky to get when we got him. And I think he worked really well with [pitching coach] Brian [Sweeney] and [bullpen coach] Mitch [Stetter] and moved our pitching department forward.
"I'm not surprised we lost him at all. I'm disappointed that we lost him, selfishly, but I'm happy for him and his family."
Likewise, McCullough said he wasn't surprised that he had to find a replacement for Shomon, who served as Miami's assistant hitting coach until the Sox came calling.
"He's a very talented hitting coach," McCullogh said. "He has a great way of building relationships with players. He understands data. He understands the new school/old school.
"Very happy for Sho to get back home to Chicago. We knew that was going to be a big loss, but that's what happens when you have quality coaches and employees."
Given that Shomon's introductory interviews have featured some creative deployment of expletives, I asked whether this penchant for profanity would make his quotes unfit for print.
"He'll be all right. He'll get it," McCullough said. "He's colorful. He's got a great personality. You'll really enjoy Sho."
