5 potential White Sox managers to replace Renteria

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5 potential White Sox managerial candidates to replace Rick Renteria

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The White Sox have started their search for a new manager to take the baton after Renteria oversaw the team’s journey through a full-scale rebuild and into contention mode. So whoever it is that follows will have easy-to-describe expectations: World Series or bust.

 

Though surely more will emerge in the coming days and weeks, here are 5 guys who could find their way into the conversation.

 

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Hinch was at the helm for the Houston Astros during a five-season run of success that included four trips to the playoffs, three consecutive division titles, three consecutive trips to the ALCS, two American League pennants and the 2017 World Series championship. Of course, he was fired before the start of the 2020 season after Major League Baseball uncovered evidence of the team’s sign-stealing operation during the 2017 season.

But though that turned the Astros into league-wide villains, it hasn’t stopped Hinch’s name from popping up on lists of future managerial candidates. And if the White Sox are searching for someone with championship-level success, Hinch fits that description. He was Dallas Keuchel’s manager from 2015 to 2018.

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Cora is in much the same situation as Hinch, if not doubly so, involved in the same sign-stealing scandal as the Astros’ bench coach in 2017 and the Boston Red Sox sign-stealing scandal from the following season, when that team, with Cora as the manager, won the World Series. The Red Sox fired Cora ahead of the 2020 season, just as the Astros did with Hinch.

And much like Hinch, Cora’s name is popping up as someone who could return to a manager’s job as soon as next season. Will it be with the White Sox, where his brother, Joey, spent four seasons as a player and nearly a decade as a coach? Joey Cora was the White Sox bench coach when the team won the World Series in 2005.

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The former White Sox catcher has long been considered a future manager, and he might just get his chance after filling in for Terry Francona at the helm of the Cleveland Indians during much of the shortened 2020 season, which ended in the White Sox division rivals reaching the postseason behind one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. Cleveland went 28-18 in the 46 games Alomar Jr. managed this season.

Alomar Jr. has spent more than a decade on the Indians’ coaching staff, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him stay there, should the team see Francona’s health issues as persistent enough to force him out of the manager’s chair. But that’s obviously no sure thing, and Alomar Jr. might take the right opportunity elsewhere, including on the South Side, where he had two separate stints as a player.

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Who knows how interested the White Sox would be in going down the “franchise legend with no managerial experience” route again after the Robin Ventura Era went the way it did. But recently retired players stepping into the manager’s role with no experience, ties to the front office and a broadcasting job has become a bit of a trend of late, and Pierzynski meets all that criteria when it comes to the White Sox.

Pierzynski spent eight of his 19 years as a major league catcher with the White Sox, the starting backstop on the 2005 team that won a World Series championship. He’s currently serving as a White Sox team ambassador and working as a broadcaster for Fox. Sounds a lot like the resume that David Ross brought into his managerial hire on the North Side of town.

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All the things that make Pierzynski a candidate apply to Thome, as well -- perhaps even more so. Thome, the Hall of Fame slugger who has been praised as one of baseball’s friendliest personalities for decades, spent four of his 22 major league seasons with the White Sox, doing what he did best as a masher in the middle of the order. Thome also has a current broadcasting gig with MLB Network.

But he’s more than just an ambassador with the White Sox, a bona fide member of the front office as a special assistant of general manager Rick Hahn, a role he’s had since 2013. According to the team, his responsibilities include consulting with Hahn and farm director Chris Getz, working with major and minor league staff members and players and visiting minor league affiliates. Thome is an Illinois native and a South Suburban resident.

While Thome’s managerial chops are obviously unknown, there are few people who could serve as a better face of the franchise.

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