White Sox manager Will Venable was named Sporting News AL Manager of the Year on Thursday, as voted by his fellow managers.

White Sox manager Will Venable has been named the Sporting News American League Manager of the Year. The award, announced Thursday, is voted on by Venable’s fellow managers.

To be clear, this isn’t the BBWAA Manager of the Year. The Sporting News awards are separate from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America awards (MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year), which are baseball’s official honors and are announced in November, after the World Series.

The White Sox shared the news on X at 9:09 a.m. CT with a simple message: “That’s our Manager.”

https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/2113271508470567001

Sporting News has handed out its baseball awards since the 1930s, and they remain peer-voted, with players voting on player awards and managers picking the top manager. Venable is the first White Sox manager to win it since Ozzie Guillén in 2005, according to Sporting News, and the sixth overall, joining Guillén, Jerry Manuel (2000), Jeff Torborg (1990), Tony La Russa (1983) and Chuck Tanner (1972), per MLB.com.

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From 121 losses to October

Venable, 43, took over a team that set the modern MLB record with 121 losses in 2024. The Sox improved to 60-102 in his first season, then jumped to 84-78 in 2026 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Chicago swept the Houston Astros in the AL Wild Card Series, then took the Cleveland Guardians to five games in the AL Division Series before falling one win short of the ALCS. According to MLB.com, the White Sox:

Became the first team in MLB history to reach the postseason after losing 100-plus games in each of the two previous seasons.

Improved by 19 or more wins for the second straight season, making Venable the third manager since 1901 to do it, along with Hall of Famers Miller Huggins and John McGraw.

Led the AL Central for 96 days.

Went 78-65 from April 17 through the end of the regular season after a 6-13 start, the fourth-best record in the AL over that stretch.

Sporting News pointed out that the Sox did it with “only one fully functional starter by the time October rolled around” and plenty of unheralded bats, writing that the job Venable did “undoubtedly earned him plenty of respect around baseball.”

More hardware on the way?

Venable wasn’t the only White Sox name on the list. Chase Meidroth was named the second baseman on the Sporting News AL All-Star team, and on the North Side, Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was named MLB Player of the Year. Milwaukee’s Pat Murphy won NL Manager of the Year for the third straight season.

The official one is still ahead. The BBWAA Manager of the Year, which is voted on by baseball writers and based only on the regular season, is scheduled to be announced Nov. 10, according to MLB.com.