Mention those 121 losses, and Venable, who spent that season coaching for the Rangers, doesn’t flinch, saying he has permanently filed last year deep into the past.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Call him “Flat Bill” Will Venable.

The rookie manager, who looks a decade younger than his 42 years, has a unique style among the 42 skippers in White Sox history. He prefers to wear his cap flat-bill style.

“I never thought to bend it,” a smiling Venable said under his oversized spring-training lid. “Ever.”

Fair enough. It’s a fresh new look, which is precisely what the Sox needed.

Desperately.

Venable exudes a cool confidence and unflappable nature that might be the perfect fit for a franchise coming off a record-setting 121-loss season.

Mention those 121 losses, and Venable, who spent that season coaching for the Rangers, doesn’t flinch, saying he has permanently filed last year deep into the past.

“Everyone in the building does it,” he said. “To be honest, it’s when the media and external people talk about last year, that’s the only time we talk about it. We’re just focused on now and winning and all the things that we have to do to execute plays and execute our vision for winning. Everyone is excited to do that.”

Mention the Sox are less than three weeks from Opening Day and don’t have a named closer or a stack of arms for late-inning work, and Venable shrugs.

Not sweating it?

“No, not at all,” Venable said. “We have pieces in here that we all like; we’re just not declaring a closer. I don’t know what the benefit of that is for right now. There’s potential for our best reliever to pitch in the seventh or eighth inning, depending on how the game unfolds. So we’re going to lean on all these guys to get outs, and how their roles kind of organically formulate during the year, so be it. But I don’t think, really at any point, we’ll be declaring a closer.”

That said, the Sox are hoping veteran right-hander Mike Clevinger, who makes his spring-training debut Sunday, will assume that role. That’s the reason they signed him to a minor-league contract late last month.

What about an Opening Day starter?

Venable does perk up at that question, realizing the calendar pages are flipping awfully fast these days.

“No, that we will have to talk about, obviously, as we get into this and we start lining guys up for what that first week looks like,” he said, “but we haven’t yet made decisions on that, either.”

Venable seems to have an answer for everything and doesn’t spout the kind of mush Pedro Grifol was muttering a year ago. This is a rebuilding team, and it will take time. Venable genuinely seems fine with that idea.

His confidence fills in the gaps better than Grifol’s false bravado ever could.

Best of all, he realizes he’s still learning along the way.

“We’re introspective and want to make sure that we’re looking at our process and making sure that we’re doing everything that we can, even if there’s things that we think we can do better,” he said with that cool smile.

NOTES: Before the Cubs-Sox game was rained out, the Sox announced right-handers Prelander Berroa and Juan Carela will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery and be lost for the season. Berroa, 24, had a 3.32 ERA in 17 relief appearances for the Sox last season. Carela, 23, went 7-7 with a 3.71 ERA in 23 combined starts at Single-A Winston Salem and Double-A Birmingham last year. Both made one spring-training outing before their injuries.

† The Sox made another round of cuts Friday, sending infielder Jacob Gonzalez, catcher Adam Hackenberg and outfielders Braden Montgomery and Wilfred Veras to minor-league camp. Carela was optioned to Birmingham before his surgery was announced.