White Sox manager Will Venable has already been honored as the Sporting News AL Manager of the Year. However, it's worth noting that the official AL Manager of the Year award presented by MLB has yet to be announced. It will be shared soon, however, and Venable is in the running for that, too.

Venable was named one of three finalists for AL Manager of the Year on Monday. The other contenders are Kevin Cash of the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays and Chad Tracy of the Boston Red Sox for guiding his team to the playoffs on a big hot streak.

While it's hard to say whether Venable will win the coveted award for sure, he absolutely deserves consideration. The Sox had lost 100 games in three consecutive seasons, and he led them to the playoffs during his second year at the helm. Not even garnering consideration might as well have meant discontinuing the award altogether!

Tony La Russa won the inaugural AL Manager of the Year after leading the Winning Ugly Sox in 1983. Since then, the award has gone to Jeff Torborg in 1990, Gene Lamont in 1993, Jerry Manuel in 2000, and Ozzie Guillen in 2005.

As hard as it might be to believe, the Sox are behind only the Cleveland Guardians for the most times winning this award, with five. They have a chance to move back into a tie for the lead with their sixth award.

There undoubtedly are Sox fans who weren't happy about how Venable managed down the stretch as the Sox lost first place in the AL Central and then a 2-0 ALDS lead. Those same Sox fans probably would scoff at the idea of Venable being in contention for this award.

Be that as it may, the Manager of the Year Award cares about results, and the improvement Venable brought to the Sox in his second year will jump out at anybody. Although he was considered the best managerial candidate on the market when the Sox hired him, it was hard to think that even he could make anything out of what he was given.

It's true that Venable didn't have a lot to work with at first, but when the 2026 core started arriving as the 2025 season progressed, it became clear that something special was brewing. Now, we know exactly what was in the works, and Venable does deserve some recognition for that.