The White Sox are going to be making a manager change in 2020, but it won’t be at the major league level. MLB.com’s Scott Merkin broke the news on Wednesday, as Omar Vizquel won’t be returning to the White Sox organization in 2020 after spending the last two years managing in the minors.
Vizquel, who played two seasons with the White Sox during his playing career, re-joined the organization in 2017 and became the manager for Winston-Salem. After one season he was promoted to the manager position at Double-A, but it seems like the White Sox wanted to head in a different direction and Vizquel no longer fit their plans.
Vizquel, 52, retired after the 2012 season and quickly jumped into coaching. In 2013, he joined the Angels’ staff as a co-infield coach and then the following year Vizquel was hired by the Tigers to be their first base coach under manager Brad Ausmus. He also served as the base running and infield coach in Detroit.
After Ausmus was let go following the 2017 season, Vizquel interviewed for the open manager position, but that eventually went to Ron Gardenhire, leading Vizquel to join the White Sox.
While some White Sox fans had already penciled in Vizquel as the next manager replacing Rick Renteria, the front office has made it pretty clear that Renteria is their guy for the foreseeable future.
Was Vizquel a good manager in the minors? No clue. Is this a bad move? A good move? Can’t really answer that either, but I understand why fans might immediately jump on the decision and think it’s the wrong one. That’s what happens when you’ve lost trust from your fan base.
