Robin Ventura of the White Sox stepped down as manager. Chicago replaced with with Rick Renteria, who managed the Cubs in 2014. Renteria spent the last season as the bench coach for the White Sox:
“He definitely will get his point across a little more, vocally,” Sox outfielder Adam Eaton said. “Not that he has more passion than Robin or anything like that, but he’s a little more upbeat, a little more bouncy. He’s kind of a bundle of baseball joy. Day in and day out as a bench coach, for me that’s the biggest thing, you’ve got to have that guy on the bench who’s kind of rah-rah and gets guys going in the right direction.”
Sox first baseman Jose Abreu said he didn’t have any trouble communicating with Ventura, but he also said having a Spanish speaker as the club’s leader would make it a little more comfortable.
“He’s a nice guy, too,” Abreu said through a team interpreter. “He knows a lot about baseball. He’s passionate about baseball. … If the team hires him, I’m going to be happy because he’s a nice person, too.”
The Cubs were happy with Renteria, but could not pass up hiring Joe Maddon. Theo Epstein at the time thought Renteria would make an excellent manager, and now we’ll see if that holds true.
Meanwhile, Walt Weiss stepped down as the manager of the Rockies.
“The Colorado Rockies announced today that Walt Weiss has decided to step down as manager. His three-year contract with the club ended with the 2016 season,” the Rockies said in a release.
Also, a strained relationship developed between Weiss and general manager Jeff Bridich, according to multiple sources within the organization, some of whom said Weiss has been been left out of the loop regarding major decisions dating to the offseason.
The Rockies are looking at Glenallen Hill, their AAA manager, as a possible replacement. Hill was a pretty good slugger in his day, but may be best know for injuring himself during a dream about spiders. The Rockies have a number of young players who came up through Hill’s team.
