Newly minted White Sox manager Will Venable joined Foul Territory recently and as part of his discussion with Erik Kratz and AJ Pierzynski, he broke some news. Venable “announced” that the White Sox had hired Walker McKinven as his bench coach. McKinven comes directly from the Milwaukee Brewers where he was the Run Prevention Coordinator, whatever the fuck that is.
What’s even funnier about McKinven is that he’s had a series of non-conventional titles during his tenure in the Cream City. “Advance Scouting Coordinator”, “Major League Strategy Manager”, “Associate Pitching, Catching and Strategy Coach”. A puzzling array of titles that had me thinking about the ruse that 1970’s Chicago mafia members tried to play in the 1995 movie Casino (not coincidentally one of my favorite gambling movies) with Sam “Ace” Rothstein (played by Robert DiNero) where they kept changing his job title to evade having to get a gaming license and allowing him to be the brains behind the operation at the (fictional) Tangiers casino.
This obfuscation lead me to a conclusion that might be considered a little tin foil-y, but not all thoughts that roll through my skull are sensical.
Is Jed Hoyer a White Sox SECRET AGENT?
Is it possible that Jed Hoyer and Craig Counsell, in a stroke of genius, suggested McKinven to Getz as not only a way to do a favor to Getz and Venable, but as a way to weaken their arch rival Milwaukee Brewers? Their incentives here are quite large, assuming all of the widely available feedback on McKinven is canon.
Think about it, the Cubs brass get to remove a key cog in the strategy component of their biggest rival, while doing a solid for a team that is expected to be trading off players over the next few years that could benefit them in future playoff runs.
For the naysayers that ask why the Cubs didn’t just hire McKinven themselves. Clearly, Milwaukee might be more apt to block such a move as best they could. Also, maybe the Cubs couldn’t easily offer a bench coach position to McKinven, but their good friends on 35th and Shields most definitely could as they were in the market for it. Not to mention the average person would think it totally crazy that they helped out in this situation, right…right?
This is an evolving situation for me. If we see Chris Getz and Jed Hoyer dealing at the trade deadline this year, I’ll be interested to see if the Cubs get first preference for a key bullpen arm or whatever of value the White Sox might be dealing. In the meantime, Getz continue to make off the field hires that impress in the market place.
It never hurts to have friends…
-BeefLoaf
