Will Venable’s second season in the White Sox dugout finished with a postseason trip, an 84-win turnaround and now a peer-voted honor. The 43-year-old was selected as Sporting News American League Manager of the Year on Thursday after guiding Chicago from the bottom of the standings to October baseball in 2026.
A season that changed the White Sox trajectory
Chicago opened the year in a hole at 6-13, but Venable’s club settled in and played like a contender for the rest of the schedule. From April 17 through the close of the regular season, the Sox went 78-65, a .545 mark that ranked fourth in the American League over that span. Only Tampa Bay at 87-57, New York at 83-59 and Boston at 80-64 posted better records.
- The White Sox completed the regular season at 84-78 and reached the American League playoffs.
- They spent 96 days in first place in the AL Central.
- Chicago improved by at least 19 victories for a second straight year, climbing from 41 wins in 2024 to 60 in 2025 and 84 in 2026.
- The 2026 club more than doubled the 41-win total recorded in the season before Venable arrived.
- The postseason berth was the 12th in franchise history and the club’s first since 2021.
The October run included a sweep of Houston in the AL Wild Card Series. Cleveland then ended Chicago’s season in a five-game AL Division Series.
Historic ground after consecutive 100-loss seasons
The Sox did more than make a sharp improvement. They became the first major league team to reach the postseason after losing at least 100 games in each of the prior two campaigns.
Chicago’s 84 wins also set a major league record for a team coming off three consecutive 100-loss seasons. The total matched the 1974 Texas Rangers for the most victories by a club following back-to-back 100-loss years.
- Kansas City in 2024, Miami in 2020 and Minnesota in 2017 are the only other teams to make the playoffs one year after a 100-loss season.
- Venable is only the third manager since 1901 to oversee gains of 19 or more wins in consecutive seasons, excluding strike-shortened and COVID-shortened years.
- He joins Hall of Famers Miller Huggins, whose Yankees rose from 69 to 91 to 110 wins from 1925 through 1927, and John McGraw, whose Giants went from 48 to 84 to 106 between 1902 and 1904.
Another Manager of the Year for Chicago
Venable is the sixth White Sox skipper to receive the Sporting News honor. He joins a group that includes Ozzie Guillén in 2005, Jerry Manuel in 2000, Jeff Torborg in 1990, Tony La Russa in 1983 and Chuck Tanner in 1972.
For Venable, the award puts a fitting cap on a season defined by the recovery after that 6-13 start. The White Sox did not merely scrape into the bracket; they stayed in the Central race for much of the summer, won their way into October and gave a fan base that had watched three 100-loss seasons a different kind of final month.
