Chicago Cubs could lose this critical member of the coaching staff

If the Houston Astros come calling in their ongoing managerial search, the Cubs will not stand in the way of Will Venable interviewing for the role.

The fallout from the ongoing sign-stealing scandal rocking the baseball world continues to rain down. AJ Hinch, Jeff Luhnow, Alex Cora and, now, Carlos Beltran are all without jobs. That leaves managerial vacancies in Houston, Boston and New York with just weeks until Spring Training.

Houston is obviously the team in hottest water (at least until the league report on the Red Sox comes out) – and in an effort to distance themselves from the Luhnow and Hinch regime, they’ll look at some external candidates in their search for a new manager.

More from Cubbies Crib

• Cubs should keep close eye on non-tender candidate Cody Bellinger
• Cubs starting pitching has been thriving on the North Side
• Make no mistake: the Cubs are very much about power hitters
• Cubs are giving pitcher Javier Assad a deserved shot
• Cubs: It’s time to start thinking about potential September call-ups

One of those candidates may be current Cubs third base coach Will Venable, who was a fairly hot commodity earlier this offseason as teams looked to fill managerial vacancies. According to Ken Rosenthal, Chicago will allow teams to speak with Venable should they come calling.

Seeing Venable leave is obviously far from ideal. That being said, it wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster for the team – just one more change in an offseason that, at least in terms of the front office and coaching staff, has been filled with change and reorganization.

The scandal is far from over. That’s already abundantly clear given how the last few days have played out. But the news about Venable potentially interviewing with other clubs shows how the Cubs could be impacted, regardless of their apparent lack of involvement in the matter.

Reporters asked Anthony Rizzo whether or not Chicago had ever engaged in these questionable practices – and he was pretty blunt in his response, saying the club was clean but were suspicious that other teams had used sign-stealing against them.

So while the immediate impact of three other organizations losing their manager might not seem like something Cubs fans should care about, that’s not the case. As we’ve seen with the front office, teams know that there are talented people filling important roles in the dugout and offices at 1060 W. Addison on the North Side of Chicago.

Will Venable might just be the latest to move on, with the Cubs left looking for the next big name in the game to fill a critical role on David Ross‘ 2020 coaching staff.