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The Boston Red Sox Thursday, November 19, 2020 * The Boston Globe Red Sox new bench coach Will Venable’s star is shining bright Julian McWilliams When Will Venable stepped on Princeton’s campus for his official recruiting visit before the fall of 2001, it was for basketball not baseball. He was a star on the court at San Rafael High School in Northern California. During his teenage years, basketball was Venable’s first love and what he saw as his future. But Venable’s father, Max, a former major leaguer who carved out a 12-year playing career, knew his son. So, during the visit, as the younger Venable envisioned what it would be like to play for an historic Ivy League brought to prominence by the legendary Pete Carril, Max slipped away to meet the Princeton baseball coach, Scott Bradley. The two had known each other in passing from their time in the majors. Sure, Max wanted to catch up on the time that had passed since they had seen each other, but Max also had a clear and distinct message for the Princeton skipper. “He came up to the office just to kind of [say] hi and chat for a while,” Bradley recalled by phone Wednesday. “And he said, ‘Look, I think at some point, Will would want to play baseball. He hasn’t played in two years.’ ” Venable didn’t turn an eye toward the baseball diamond early into his freshman year. It was all basketball. He averaged just over 15 minutes per game during his freshman campaign and the Tigers finished 16-12, second in the Ivy League. But as his father had predicted, the baseball bug would eventually hit him. After nearly three years away from the game, Venable felt it was the right time for a return and intimated that to Bradley. “I said, ‘You want to go hit?’ ’’ Bradley remembered asking Venable at the time. “He said, ‘Sure.’ ” I go, ‘When was the last time you hit?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know, maybe three years ago.’ ” The first five pitches Bradley threw Venable, he missed. The next five Bradley threw him, he popped up in the cage. “Then he became our best hitter,” Bradley said. Venable played three seasons for Bradley and turned himself into a seventh-round draft choice by the San Diego Padres in 2005 after hitting .385 with nine homers during his senior season. He turned that into a nine-year playing career in the majors for the Padres, Texas Rangers, and Los Angeles Dodgers, hitting .249 with 81 homers while playing all three outfield positions. This is an example of who Venable is. That’s why his latest challenge as the new Red Sox bench coach under Alex Cora isn’t random. Venable knows he’s capable. Furthermore, he understands when it’s time to make a shift. “In his last year [in the majors in 2016], he called me and said, ‘You know, I could probably go make a team. But I think I really want to get onto the other side of baseball, you know, whether it is player development, coaching,’ ” Bradley said. “He knew it at that point.” In 2017, Venable served as the Chicago Cubs’ special assistant to president Theo Epstein, before taking on the role as the team’s first base coach for the 2018-19 seasons. In 2020, he became the Cubs’ third base coach. Veteran Cameron Maybin understands the road Venable took to get here and what he can offer the game and the Red Sox. The two were teammates in San Diego for parts of four seasons (2011-14). Then, Venable briefly coached Maybin last season with the Cubs. “I don’t think there is a bad thing that I can say about Will Venable, the friend, the teammate, the coach,” Maybin said via text. “I’ve never met a guy more driven to be prepared. The thing I love about him the most is that he’s always finding a way to get better. I truly think the combination of him and Alex Cora is going to be something serious. Those are definitely two of the brightest minds in the game right now.” Venable, 38, is widely considered to be a bright managerial candidate. For now, though, he’s beginning a new chapter with the Sox. One that his college coach thinks will be a successful one based on Venable’s shrewdness, of course, but also his human touch. “He’s one of the best human beings that I have ever been associated with in my life,” Bradley said. After a summer in Mississippi, Red Sox prospect Blaze Jordan is finally back in the swing of things Julian McWilliams Blaze Jordan finally felt what it was like to be a part of the Red Sox organization during instructional league play this fall. Jordan, the Sox’ third-round draft choice in June, spent an entire summer working out in his home state of Mississippi after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the minor league season. So, once he finally arrived at the Sox’ facility in Fort Myers, Fla., and returned to the baseball diamond, Jordan quickly found his comfort zone. “It was easy to settle in,” the 17-year-old Jordan said last week by phone. “The coaches, they were great, and the guys, they were great, too. Overall, I felt like I got a lot better while I was down there and I was able to get a lot of good instruction down there, too.” Beginning in middle school, Jordan was known as one of the top power-hitting amateurs in the country. Few could replicate his ability to hit tape-measure shots. This past summer marked the first time in a while that Jordan couldn’t display that power. However, once baseball resumed, Jordan’s skill set was still evident. “Having seen him so much as an amateur, you almost get a little sense of prospect fatigue,” said Red Sox amateur scouting director Paul Toboni, who had a huge say in drafting Jordan. “But it’s kind of refreshing when you see him pop into instructional league and you see some of our player-development guys wide- eyed. He’s got crazy bat speed and is going to have good power.” Said Jordan: “I was seeing the ball really well. I still have to make a few adjustments.” One of those adjustments is pitch selection, something both Toboni and Jordan acknowledged as an area for improvement. “He’s got hand-eye coordination, he can handle different pitch types,” Toboni said. “He does a lot of things that are conducive to being a good hitter with time. For me, I think when it’s going to click, he’s going to find a way to shrink the zone and force pitchers to come into him.” Controlling the strike zone and remaining disciplined are often problematic for young players, particularly a player with Jordan’s ability. At the amateur level, advanced hitters can often fall into bad habits like chasing pitches out of the strike zone just because they have the ability to square them up. Yet, as competition stiffens, so does the pitching and the velocity, forcing hitters to focus on not expanding. It’s a skill that Toboni said he thinks Jordan will discover with time, maturation, and more at-bats. On the defensive side, Jordan strictly played third base. He said the Sox helped him with his positioning and simplified his glove action. He had a habit of flipping his glove prior to fielding a grounder. The Sox eliminated that. “The game was a lot quicker, but I was able to slow it down by making those adjustments,” Jordan said. “I’m pretty confident playing over there next season, too.” If there is one question mark, it’s Jordan’s defense. Jordan, who doesn’t turn 18 until Dec. 19, already carries a mature frame at 6 feet 2 inches, 218 pounds. He’s not the most athletic player for the position, and perhaps he fits the profile of a first baseman. Nevertheless, the Sox have said that they feel Jordan could stick at third base. He can sometimes be rigid and lack fluidity, but Toboni, too, is confident he can play the position. “I think he has a legitimate shot to stay there,” Toboni said. “I think most teams, probably as an amateur, take him as a first baseman. “But the one thing about Blaze is that he’s incredibly mature. I think he has a good feel for implementing the adjustments that he has to make. I think that’s oftentimes overlooked. But if he knows the adjustments he has to make, he’s going to work toward making those adjustments.” * The Boston Herald Red Sox’ Chaim Bloom leading his front office with Theo Epstein in mind Jason Mastrodonato Before he accepted the offer to be the Red Sox’ chief baseball officer last October, Chaim Bloom reached out to Theo Epstein. They had met before, though Bloom doesn’t remember when, and it felt appropriate to discuss what it’d be like running a Sox organization that Epstein once captained through a nine-year span that included two World Series titles and one infamous gorilla suit incident. Before stepping into Epstein’s old shoes, Bloom wanted him to know he respected him. “I made sure to tell him that I knew how important people here are to him and the culture here is to him,” Bloom told the Herald by phone Wednesday.

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