The Rangers announced Will Venable is joining their coaching staff, working under new manager Bruce Bochy as associate manager. The former big leaguer had been working as bench coach with the Red Sox.
Venable, 40, has spent the past five seasons working on a big league staff. He served as a base coach with the Cubs from 2018-20. Venable, who had interviewed for a managerial vacancy in Boston during the 2020-21 offseason, ended up being tabbed as bench coach under Alex Cora — who returned as manager after being dismissed and suspended for the 2020 campaign.
The Princeton graduate has never managed in the big leagues (aside from a brief interim stint while Cora was sidelined by COVID-19 this year), but he’s frequently been regarded as a manager-in-waiting. Venable has interviewed for a number of lead positions in recent winters, sitting down with the Tigers, A’s, Astros, Cubs and Giants in prior offseasons. He reportedly drew some attention from the Royals in their search last month, but it’s unclear whether they ever met with him before tabbing Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro.
With all the managerial positions filled, it looked likely Venable would reprise his role as Cora’s right-hand man for a third season. Instead, he’ll make the jump to Arlington to work with Bochy in the veteran skipper’s return to the dugout after three years. Venable was a prospect in the San Diego farm system during Bochy’s time as manager in 2005-06. Bochy was already in San Francisco by the time Venable made the big leagues, but he did overlap there with Chris Young. The Texas general manager was a teammate of Venable’s in San Diego through 2010, and the former outfielder also had a brief playing stint as a Ranger late in the 2015 campaign.