The South Side already knew what Will Venable meant to this team. Now the rest of the league has caught on.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America named Venable the 2026 American League Manager of the Year on Tuesday, recognizing the skipper who helped make meaningful baseball a reality again on the South Side.
Venable finished ahead of fellow finalists Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays and Chad Tracy of the Boston Red Sox. Vote totals & 1st place votes.
After three consecutive seasons with at
least 100 losses, the White Sox finished 84-78 and returned to the postseason for the first time since 2021. For a fan base that had spent far too much time finding creative ways to describe bad baseball, watching the standings in September was a welcome change.
The road there wasn’t always pretty. Chicago spent 96 days atop the AL Central before letting the division slip away, and the September bullpen adventures probably took a few years off all our lives. Those frustrations deserve their place in the season’s story, but so does the fact that there was something worth getting frustrated about. Expectations had changed.
Venable deserves credit for helping get them there. A young roster found its footing, players grew into their roles and the South Siders gave fans reasons to keep coming back.
The honor follows his Sporting News AL Manager of the Year recognition on Oct. 22, voted on by his fellow managers. This time, the writers joined the party.
There’s still work to do, and an award won’t make the next bullpen decision any easier to watch. But after everything this fan base has sat through, seeing the man at the helm recognized for a winning season feels pretty darn good.
