Will Venable just alienated a key White Sox with latest unjustifiable decision

If you’re anything like me, the 2025 White Sox season made you feel like the White Sox were in good hands on the coaching front. Manager Will Venable rallied a sub-par roster to a 19-game improvement and for the first time in a long time, it truly felt like the White Sox had the right leader in the dugout. Just two weeks into the 2026 season and I’m already starting to question that feeling. Will Venable’s in-game decisions have been questionable at best in the early going, and his latest one may have alienated a key veteran player. 

The White Sox took a 3-2 lead into the sixth inning of Wednesday’s series finale against the Orioles when Venable turned to lower leverage arms Lucas Sims and Bryan Hudson to hold the lead instead of leaning on his high leverage relievers. The situation unsurprisingly backfired and the Orioles took the lead into the bottom of the seventh. After an infield single by Miguel Vargas and a hit-by-pitch to Colson Montgomery, the White Sox found themselves chasing a one-run deficit and threatening with lefty reliever Grant Wolfram set to face Andrew Benintendi. Instead, Venable sent up Derek Hill to hit, who promptly grounded into an inning-ending double play and ended the threat. 

On the surface, pinch-hitting for Benintendi, who entered the at-bat hitting just .194, made sense. But when you look deeper at the numbers, which is the job of the team’s manager, it’s a bit more curious. 

If I’m able to access those statistics with a quick google search, there’s no reason Will Venable shouldn’t know that about the team he gets paid to manage. Since that’s the case, Venable ignoring the numbers to make that decision is a questionable choice. Andrew Benintendi seemed to feel the same way when asked about it after the game, though he acknowledged his slow start to the season. 

“Right now I’m not very surprised,” Benintendi said. “So far this year, yesterday was basically the first time facing lefties this year. I guess they’re doing more righty-lefty, lefty-righty matchups this year. Yeah, even though honestly, I felt like I hit lefties better than righties last year”

Benintendi is correct. His OPS against right-handers in 2025 was just .709, while he posted an .849 OPS against lefties. Even if Venable didn’t love the matchup against Wolfram, Derek Hill and his .575 OPS against lefties in 2025 certainly shouldn’t have been the first option. Lenyn Sosa would’ve offered a more serviceable alternative. Hindsight is always 20-20, so it’s really easy to criticize a decision knowing it didn’t work, but this one felt weird from the start. And it makes the White Sox feelings about Benintendi clear. He has a right to be frustrated.

Will Venable's questionable decisionmaking has become apparent this season

Unfortunately, weird decisions have become normal for Will Venable this season. Whether it was benching Miguel Vargas and Austin Hays during the second game of the season after an off day, using Chris Murphy and Jordan Hicks in high-leverage spots despite their struggles, or just a general lack of early fundamentals, the sophomore performance from the White Sox manager has left a lot to be desired. The White Sox roster suffers from a lack of talent, but it's still the manager's job to maximize the talent he has, and Will Venable has not put his players in the best position to succeed in the early going. I didn't expect Venable to be one of the White Sox issues this year, but it's been a major disappointment in the early going.

It’s still very early in the year and there’s plenty of time for Venable to turn things around, but it the questionable decisions become a regular event all season, it’s fair for the White Sox to start questioning whether they’ve truly found the guy they want leading this team during their next competitive window.