Winter Meetings interview with Rick Renteria

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Updated: December 7, 2016

Q. When you hear the word “rebuild” mentioned in conjunction with the White Sox, what goes through your mind? RICK RENTERIA: Honestly, I haven’t heard the word because I haven’t really been — you guys know me, I don’t do a whole lot of reading. Most of my information comes from the guys that know what they are doing. Obviously we got back a couple of high-end prospects, and we’re looking forward to see how they end up developing with us as White Sox. You know, we’re obviously going to miss Chris. He was an integral part of our organization and our team. My only concern is obviously whatever players, what group of players I have, those are the ones I have to manage. So at this point, we have what we have right now and we’ll see how it continues.Q. When you started the conversations with the front office before you got hired, was there the transparency that there might be different players, there might be younger players, you might be in a mode like they are assumed to be in right now; that it could be a rebuild over a couple years? RICK RENTERIA: I think that the conversations we had, when I expressed myself, the ability or the desire to be able to handle either/or. There was talks of the possibility, but there was nothing set in stone at the time obviously. But again, it goes back to me handling the job with whomever it is that we have available to us and trying to get the most out of those guys that we have.Q. Your reputation has been that you’ve been good with younger players, and apparently that’s what’s coming in right now. Looking forward, how do you position yourself to deal with that? RICK RENTERIA: You know, again, whoever it is we have, I think when you’re looking at an organization, and that’s what we’re looking at as a whole, everybody plays a huge hand in helping these young men develop. My conversations with coaches allows them the autonomy to do what they do, the hitting coaches and fielding coaches, the pitching coaches. We have guys with a tremendous amount of experience. The one thing that I think the game, the industry, has shown is that younger players are filtering in a lot sooner than they used to in the past. You still have to continue to teach at the Major League level, and that’s one thing that’s evident throughout. I think you have organizations that have kind of shifted their mode and started building with a younger core of players, and you have to have a vision and an idea of how you want to move forward with them. But the one thing that you have to have is belief and trust. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s doable, obviously.Q. When you have a transient group of position players at the Major League level, how difficult is it for coaches and managers to deal with that, and more importantly, how difficult is it to establish leadership when you have many changes in the position player group every year? RICK RENTERIA: I think as the manager, you have to establish, you know, what your vision is and what the vision is of the organization in terms of who we’re going to be. Most of the times, when I’m talking to guys right now, even in small conversations, we talk about playing the game. And that means that you have to be a selfless individual. People have to buy into that idea. This is an industry that rewards the players with compensation, but you are always trying to establish players’ ideas in terms of how they are going to perform for you as an organization and know that if you win, everybody wins. And I’ve said that before. You guys have heard me say the same thing. But guys have to know that they are going in there to do a particular job. They have to take care of their piece and everybody has to follow suit. And ultimately, and I know it’s a clichÃ©, ultimately I know it’s about the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.Q. Do the leaders have to be anointed from within the realm? RICK RENTERIA: I think leaders kind of express who they are over time. You have to earn trust. People’s trust is earned through your actions and through your conversations, through your consistency and approach and conversations that you have with them. They need to know that when you say something, you mean it and that you follow through with it and that you’ll try to hold a consistent line across the board with everybody in terms of commitment. You want guys to go out there and enjoy the game. It’s a very difficult game to play. But there’s a process to everything. We all know that. They’ve got to take those steps to give themselves the chance to do what they need to do and trust in garnering other players to come in and be leaders. Takes time. It’s also a process. I don’t think you can bully your way into doing it. It doesn’t really serve — in the long term, it doesn’t serve a good purpose.Q. Obviously Moncada is the big name in the group that you guys got yesterday. What do you know about him and what’s your thoughts about working with a top prospect? RICK RENTERIA: I’ve seen a little video of the guys. Moncada, the first clip I saw of him, he reminded me a little bit from his set up and everything of Peno (phonetic), and now he’s a switch hitter and shows some discipline at the plate. I know that at 21 years of age, he still has a long way to go in terms of what he’s ultimately going to be. I think he’s a very talented human being who we hope is going to be an impact-type player. Kopech is a young man who is about 6’3″, very good arm. Obviously we have people within the organization that believe that we can harness that strength and that skill set and have him become a pitcher, command the zone, things of that nature. But, again, our job is going to be to have these guys become as quickly — to become as comfortable as quickly as possible with the way that we are going to go about preparing to play the game, and …

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