Omar Vizquel, a key part of the White Sox rebuilding machine, gets rave reviews after promotion

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The White Sox have a good thing going with Omar Vizquel.

While he spent much of his astonishingly lengthy 24-year big league career with the Cleveland Indians during their glory days in the 1990s, he's now playing a key role in bringing about some glory days for one of the Tribe's division rivals.

Vizquel obviously spent two seasons on the South Side, so he's far from operating in enemy territory. In fact, he's become an important part of the White Sox rebuilding machine. Last year, he flourished at Class A Winston-Salem in his first season as a minor league manager. After a year in the Carolina League, where he was named manager of the year, he's getting a promotion, just like the players he managed, and he'll be the skipper at Double-A Birmingham in 2019.

"With Omar, you look at how he matched up with the team that he had last year. Last year was pretty heavy with priority players. We felt that those priority players developed well," said Chris Getz, the White Sox director of player development, during a Wednesday morning conference call. "They took a lot of steps forward. It made a lot of sense to move some of those players up with Omar.

"He created a great culture at Winston-Salem, those guys responded, and we expect something similar to happen in Birmingham at a higher level."

Vizquel managed a large percentage of the White Sox top 30 prospects last season at Winston-Salem, spending time with Dylan Cease (No. 3 in the organization, per MLB Pipeline), Luis Robert (4), Nick Madrigal (5), Dane Dunning (6), Blake Rutherford (7), Luis Basabe (9), Alec Hansen (10), Micker Adolfo (11), Luis Gonzalez (14), Gavin Sheets (15), Jimmy Lambert (21), Tyler Johnson (23), Bernardo Flores (25), Laz Rivera (28) and Lincoln Henzman (30).

He'll see a lot of those guys in Birmingham this year, and they'll benefit from that familiarity at their next stop. While that's certainly not the only reason Vizquel got the promotion he did, it's a plus, Getz said. And the players who spent time developing at Class A Kannapolis will have a similar experience as they move on to Winston-Salem. With Vizquel's move up the managerial ladder, Justin Jirschle goes from the manager at Kannapolis to Vizquel's old seat in Winston-Salem.

"It’s very important. I wouldn’t say that it’s absolutely vital because we are confident in the staff that we have at each affiliate," Getz said. "However, I think if you can keep a group of players together through this process, I think you are going to benefit in the end. So, however with this staff and guys responding well with a certain manager, hitting coach or pitching coach, what have you, it may make that transition to a higher level just a little bit easier knowing what you are getting yourself into right off the bat."

Vizquel's quick movement in the minor leagues could bode well for his future in the majors. Maybe he continues ascending along with his players and joins the coaching staff on the South Side. He's already been a major league coach with the Los Angeles Angels and the Detroit Tigers. Or perhaps he joins the ranks of major league managers soon. He interviewed for the Tigers' job that ended up going to Ron Gardenhire last offseason.

But the future the White Sox are most concerned with right now is the one involving the players Vizquel will be managing. It's all part of the player-development process that Rick Hahn's front office hopes will lead to a perennial contender on the South Side.

Just like the White Sox sing the praises of Rick Renteria as a key figure in turning these young players into a championship-caliber roster upon their arrival in the major leagues, they seem to have a similar opinion of Vizquel and what he's been able to do at the minor league level.

"I’ve said it from the beginning, I’ve been around Omar enough, prior to even hiring him, he has such a passion for the game but he also has a passion for instruction," Getz said. "He’s a great communicator. When he walks in the room he’s going to command the room just based on his history. But he’s such a genuine person, therefore he can build relationships very quickly and get buy-in very quickly. It kind of showed last year in the progress that was made with a lot of those players."

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