Written by Colleen Kane at Chicago Tribune.com
The White Sox didn’t wait long or look far to find their next manager after Robin Ventura announced his departure from the team Sunday after five seasons.
On the morning after the season ended, general manager Rick Hahn said he believes the Sox already had the best candidate in house.
Rick Renteria was introduced as the 40th manager in Sox history — and just the second to manage both the Cubs and Sox — at a news conference Monday.
Citing Renteria’s high baseball IQ, tireless work ethic and ability to communicate across a multicultural clubhouse, Hahn said Renteria, 54, has been at the top of the Sox’s internal list of potential managerial candidates for years. The team had about a month since Ventura announced his intention to leave to weigh their options, and they decided to eschew a full managerial search and hire Renteria.
Hahn acknowledged other candidates might have similar qualities as Renteria, who spent eight seasons managing in the minors, coached six seasons for the Padres and managed his lone major-league season with the Cubs in 2014. But he said Renteria’s familiarity with the organization and players after a year as Ventura’s bench coach and his “ability to seamlessly take over the position” and “hit the ground running” gave him the edge.
“There are some quality candidates out there,” Hahn said. “Some of them might have been as good. We didn’t feel any of them would wow us any more than Ricky had wowed us. At the same time, there is a benefit to him already having these relationships with some of these players. He knows what they are about, what buttons to push, what buttons not to push. And the players have a healthy level of respect for him on day one.”
Hahn spent much of his time with reporters explaining why the Sox didn’t want to fully explore their options and why hiring Renteria isn’t maintaining the status quo in an organization that has put together four straight losing seasons and eight straight years without a playoff appearance.
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