5) Being adaptable and not so dogmatic in his ways.
Stubborn managers have been a plague on this organization ever since Tony La Russa came back to this organizaiton.
It would be nice to see Venable be flexible in how approaches things. You hope he avoids problems such as Tony always playing Leury Garcia or Grifol doubling down on his uncharacteristic criticism of the team almost getting no-hit by Kyle Bradish.
6) His decisions at the very least do not cost the White Sox victories.
Players win ball games, and managers usually lose them. That has always been the school of thought in baseball. If you can find a manager whose decisions rarely hurt the club, then you have a good one.
It was clear early on that Pedro was going to be a bad manager with all his terrible decisions.
Grifol's in-game management cost the Sox some precious wins, and it is on the Dead Sea-sized scroll list of reasons the Sox lost a record-breaking 121 games. When your roster is overmatched, the last thing you need is a manager who makes poor decisions.
The White Sox had some poor luck that hurt them in the margins, but also a bad manager when it came to filling out the lineup card, and his curious bullpen choices hurt the cause as well.
At the very least, you want Venable to reach the floor of being a net-neutral manager. He is going to make mistakes, especially in the beginning, as he gains experience. You just hope his good decisions even out his poor ones.
Venable's apprenticeships under Maddon, Alex Cora, and Bruce Bochy do give him promise that he can reach the ceiling of being an above-replacement-level manager who pushes the correct buttons more than the incorrect ones. If he is at least a neutral manager in decision-making, it should not add up to historic losing seasons.