Will Venable’s Sporting News Award Puts White Sox Manager in BBWAA Conversation

Will Venable’s Sporting News Manager of the Year award gives the White Sox a notable end-of-season honor and puts him in the conversation ahead of the BBWAA awards, which are scheduled to be announced Nov. 10. Pat Murphy won the National League award. The Sporting News honors are decided by fellow managers, and their American League winner has often gone on to claim the BBWAA prize as well.

That history gives Venable’s recognition some weight, though it’s no guarantee of what comes next. The previous American League winner, Dan Wilson, saw his team’s season end with him announcing his own firing, an outcome the source treats as an exception rather than a pattern. For the White Sox, the award offers a stronger measure of peer regard than a prediction of future results.

A familiar honor for the White Sox

Venable is the sixth White Sox manager to receive the Sporting News award. The previous five were attached to memorable seasons: Ozzie Guillen in 2005, Jerry Manuel in 2000, Jeff Torborg in 1990, Tony La Russa in 1983 and Chuck Tanner in 1972. That lineage gives the latest recognition a franchise context, even as Venable’s own season stands on its merits.

The recent awards record shows both the value and the limits of the Sporting News result. In the American League, the Sporting News and BBWAA selections matched in 2024, 2023, 2021 and 2020, while they differed in 2025 and 2022. In the National League, the awards matched in four of the six seasons listed, with Pat Murphy taking both in 2024 and 2025. The history makes the honor a useful signal, not a lock.

Meidroth earns season-end recognition

Chase Meidroth made the Sporting News American League All-Star Team at second base, a year-end distinction that carries extra resonance after he missed the actual All-Star team in July. The source describes him as the league’s most valuable second baseman by either WAR estimate at season’s end. He’s the first White Sox player named a year-end All-Star since José Abreu in 2020.

Meidroth also remains in the running for a BBWAA honor: he’s a finalist for the Gold Glove at second base. The All-Star selection recognizes his value across the season; the Gold Glove finalist spot gives the fielding side of his case its own stage. Together, the honors make him one of the clearest individual success stories in the White Sox’s season.

Infield plans and Cholowsky’s recovery

The club is already looking ahead to its infield options for 2027. In a report on that depth, Scott Merkin also shared an update on Roch Cholowsky, the top pick overall in the 2026 draft. Cholowsky recorded 46 plate appearances for High-A Winston-Salem before right wrist tendinitis ended his season. The White Sox said he was progressing well and would likely be cleared to swing fully in early November.

“He’s in a great spot. He’s just a little frustrated with not being able to play toward the end understandably,” White Sox director of player development Paul Janish told MLB.com. “I’m really excited to see how next year goes for him.”

Janish also pointed to the adjustment from college: “One of the differences between us potentially and the college level in general is how much work we do on a daily basis outside of the game. Getting his body used to being able to do that and also play every day.”

The immediate marker is Cholowsky’s expected return to full swings. Beyond that, Janish’s comments frame the next step as an adjustment to the daily workload of professional baseball, alongside playing regularly. The crowded infield picture offers the organization options, while Cholowsky’s recovery will help shape how quickly he can rejoin the conversation.

Labor tension and a busy winter market

Ken Rosenthal’s assessment of baseball’s approaching labor dispute adds a broader concern to the winter outlook. He acknowledged that payroll disparity deserves attention, then argued that owners’ pursuit of higher franchise values sits closer to the heart of the coming conflict than competitive balance does.

“Payroll disparity is a legitimate concern. The labor agreement should be adjusted to put small-market teams on a more level economic playing field. But this bears repeating, too: The coming labor Armageddon is much more about the owners’ desire to raise their franchise values than it is about competitive balance.”

The possibility of lost games would carry costs well beyond the schedule itself. The source points to national broadcast deals and the momentum toward expansion as stakes that could make a lengthy stoppage especially damaging. Yet if owners see payroll controls as central to raising franchise values, the dispute could still harden around that goal.

There may be a rush of free-agent activity before the collective bargaining agreement expires. The gap between the World Series and that expiration is about a month, and Andy McCullough’s report points to two reasons players could sign quickly: what amounts to a Dec. 1 deadline and a weaker free-agent class whose members may prefer to act early even in a normal winter. The activity before the deadline could shape how fans experience the uncertainty around the dispute.

Changes in Anaheim

Kurt Suzuki won’t return as Angels manager after signing an unusual one-year contract exactly one year earlier. John Mozeliak is expected to oversee the front office only through December, with the club presumably set to hire a new general manager or team president afterward. The source characterizes Arte Moreno’s final decisions on the club’s leadership as having played out as planned; the next appointments will establish who steers the organization from there.

One unrelated link in the roundup concerns Pope Leo’s doctors saying no further treatment is necessary after lung cancer surgery, followed by the writer’s dry aside that “Pope news is White Sox business.” The collection closes on a media-industry note: The Ringer’s shift toward podcasts and occasional articles has prompted writers to launch independent paid newsletters, though the source says the strategy and pricing remain hard to make sense of.

For the White Sox, the clearest immediate takeaways are Venable’s peer recognition, Meidroth’s season-end honors and Cholowsky’s expected return to swinging. The winter’s larger questions, from the infield mix to the labor talks, will determine how much those individual milestones can shape what comes next.

The Sporting News award’s previous American League winner and his season-ending departure

White Sox discuss infield depth ahead of 2027

Small-payroll teams and the World Series

Free-agent expectations before the labor agreement expires

Angels managerial and front-office changes

Pope Leo’s recovery update

The Ringer’s shift toward newsletters and podcasts