Chicago Cubs: White Sox on the verge of hiring former skipper, Rick Renteria

Around this time last season, the Chicago Cubs fired first-year skipper, Rick Renteria in order to make room for veteran manager, Joe Maddon who opted out of his contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Prior to Maddon arriving in Chicago, the Cubs had run through a couple of manager’s including Kansas City Royals hitting coach, Dale Sveum. Hats off to Sveum for helping that club win a World Series by defeating the New York Mets earlier this month.

Now, Renteria jumped from the San Diego Padres after spending three seasons as the bench coach for the organization. I was personally on board with him being hired on to lead the Cubs, considering how well he worked with young players on the west coast.

While switching up the lineup’s on the North Side of Chicago, the Cubs had Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, Arismendy Alcantara, Tsuyoshi Wada, Kyle Hendricks, and Neil Ramirez make their big league debuts. This set the tone for the new campaign, leading the way for Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Addison Russell in 2015.

Renteria’s run with the Cubs wasn’t all that bad. As a matter of fact, it was considered an improvement as Sveum managed to win only 66 games while dropping 96 on top of finishing fifth in the N.L. Central.

On the day he was fired, Cubs President Theo Epstein released a statement, mentioning that the decision to remove him as manager of the club was a difficult decision and thanked him for his dedication, commitment, and for making this a better organization.

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And just like that, he was on his way.

Now, just a year after his firing, the Chicago White Sox are close to hiring him as their bench coach according to the Chicago Sun-Times. They are reporting that the announcement could be made within the next day or two, as both sides are currently meeting in Florida.

While the South Siders aren’t expected to be big time players during the off-season, adding Renteria’s experience as a bench coach will help this team moving forward.

Like the Cubs, the White Sox will have him working with the younger guys who mainly speak Spanish. Renteria is fluent and was the manager of Mexico’s team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

It’ll be great to see him during the Crosstown Classic which will officially begin on July 25.