Ozzie Guillen, who won the World Series in 2005 as manager of the Chicago White Sox and the Caribbean Series in 2024 as manager of the Tiburones de La Guaira, has been named the new manager of the Tigres de Aragua in the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional.
Guillen managed the White Sox from 2004-11, making the playoffs twice and winning the American League Manager of the Year award in 2005, the same year the Sox won their first World Series since 1917 with a sweep of the Houston Astros. He last managed in Major League Baseball with the Miami Marlins in 2012, going 69-93 and finishing 29 games behind Washington in the NL East.
He returned to the driver’s seat in the LVBP in 2023-24 with the Tiburones de La Guaira, leading the club to its first league title in 38 years and its first Caribbean Series title, which made him just the second manager to win both a World Series title and a Caribbean Series title in a career. With titles in two of professional baseball’s biggest events, he joined Tommy Lasorda, who won the World Series as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981 and 1988 and the Caribbean Series as manager of LIDOM’s Tigres del Licey in 1973.
The Tiburones de La Guaira went 7-1 at the 2024 Caribbean Series at loanDepot Park in Miami, getting the second no-hitter in Caribbean Series history and the first in 72 years from Angel Padron in a 9-0 win against Nicaragua’s Gigantes de Rivas, and then beating LIDOM’s Tigres del Licey 3-0 in the championship game.
Guillen takes over a team that finished 27-29 in the 2024-25 regular season, good for sixth place in the LVBP. They defeated the Leones del Caracas in the play-in game to enter the LVBP’s 16-game round robin playoff, finishing 5-11. The Tigres last won the LVBP title in 2015-16, when they were managed by former Atlanta Braves catcher Eddie Perez, and won their only Caribbean Series title in 2009 under Buddy Bailey.
The LVBP’s 54-game regular season will begin in early October, with the top four teams advancing to a 16-game round robin playoff, along with the winner of a play-in game between the fourth- and fifth-place teams. The round robin playoff will begin in late December or early January.
Photo: Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen talks to media at a news conference before a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Friday, June 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
