After an anemic month of May for the Chicago White Sox, the heat on Robin Ventura’s seat has reached record high temperatures. Ace Chris Sale, however, isn’t ready to throw his manager to the sharks.
The 2016 Chicago White Sox began the season with relatively little hype surrounding them. That managed to change rapidly, though, after an unexpectedly hot start which saw them compile a 17-8 record for the month of April that quickly gave them the title of “surprise team.” Unfortunately for the White Sox, May has not been nearly as kind as April. Through 30 days in May, the White Sox are the owners of a 10-17 record, and possibly more alarming is the 2-8 mark over the last 10 days.
As is the case in most sports, when teams struggle the coaching staff tends to receive the majority of the blame. This appears to be the approach Chicagoans are buying into, and with the White Sox struggling mightily, the outcry for the removal of Robin Ventura as manager has been loud. If Ventura has one thing going for him, it’s who he has in his corner defending him, White Sox star pitcher, Chris Sale.
With the talks of possibly removing Ventura from his duties becoming more prevalent, Sale recently commented:
"“I don’t think he gave up any runs, I don’t think he made any errors and he’s in the dugout the whole time. It’s on us to win games. I understand people want to point fingers and find blame. But at the end of the day, it falls on the players.”"
There is no way of telling if the comments made by Sale are representative of all the Sox players, but it is safe to assume that the statement holds significantly more weight with the front office coming from Sale, who despite the team’s recent struggles is still the early season AL Cy Young favorite and the most valuable individual player on the White Sox’s current roster.
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The 2016 season is young, and although the White Sox’s play of late doesn’t necessarily call for much optimism, they are after all only two games behind an injury-plagued Kansas City Royals and a half game back of a Cleveland Indians team that has proved inconsistent at times for first place in the ultra-competitive AL Central.
After an 85-77 season back in 2012, which saw Ventura win AL Manager of the Year, while simultaneously hinting at future success, the White Sox skipper has never eclipsed that 2012 win total. He has compiled a mediocre overall record of 239-305 with no postseason appearances to his name. Ventura was on the hot seat coming into this year, and while his team’s unexpected start may have cooled that chair off briefly, the recent evaporation of a six-game lead in the division has firmly placed him back in every coach’s least favorite position.
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While Chris Sale is certainly the endorsement to receive if you’re an embattled manager, a June homologous to that of April might just be the only thing capable of keeping Robin Ventura employed by the White Sox.