Former Chicago White Sox manager Rick Renteria is nominated for Manager of the Year.
Awkward. Former Chicago White Sox manager Rick Renteria has been nominated for the BWAA Manager of the Year in the American League. Charlie Montoyo of the Toronto Blue Jays and Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays are the other nominees along with Rick Renteria. It is obviously awkward for Renteria because he is no longer employed by the Chicago White Sox. He has been replaced by Tony La Russa as the White Sox look to take the next step in 2021.
So if Renteria was bad enough to be fired, why is he nominated for the Manager of the Year award? Well, he wasn’t the best at constructing a lineup or handling pitching but he did help the White Sox overachieve in 2020. They were expected by some to possibly make the playoffs but they were the first team in the American League to clinch.
It was fun to watch this team grow and Renteria was a big part of it. They grew as an organization with him at the helm. He helped build a culture in that dugout that is hopefully going to carry on for many more years. They never quit even when they were a bad baseball team. The term “Ricky’s boys don’t quit” became a thing for a reason, and it is because he helped them learn that no game is out of reach.
There are things he did leading up to 2020 that helped lay a foundation. Now the players that he coached are going to be able to take some of those values with them as they try to make deep postseason runs. He helped them overachieve a whole bunch of times leading up to taking the next step.
Now, he has been replaced by both baseball teams in Chicago as they were ready to take the next step as an organization. The Chicago Cubs presented Renteria with a World Series ring for a reason after 2016 and hopefully, the White Sox are able to do the same someday. They may have been ready to move on from him after this season but he deserves this nomination for helping the White Sox along in their rebuild. We wish him the best in this award and whatever he may pursue in the future.