CHICAGO — Rick Renteria, the new Chicago White Sox bench coach, insisted Wednesday he has no ill will toward the Chicago Cubs for his awkward firing as their manager last fall.

Renteria, who managed the Portland Sea Dogs in 2000 and 2001, acknowledged he was taken aback when the Cubs fired him to clear the way for Joe Maddon. But he also said there never were any hard feelings.

“It would be foolish for anybody that’s doing something and has given themselves to a task to not feel like you get the wind blown out of you a little bit,” he said Wednesday.

“But again, you take a step back. You regroup. I’m sure quite frankly that there was no intent on anybody’s side to create a difficult situation.”

He said it’s “in the past” and there are “no hard feelings.”

“There never was,” he added.

Renteria had stayed quiet because he wanted the focus to remain on the progress the Cubs made during his lone season managing them in 2014. But Wednesday’s introductory conference call for the White Sox largely focused on that situation.

Renteria said he is “totally, completely happy with the opportunity” the Cubs gave him, that his firing was “just business, just baseball.”

The Cubs were planning to bring back Renteria for a second season after he led a young team to 73 wins. That changed once Maddon became available.

The Cubs saw a chance to land one of the game’s best managers. Would the Cubs have done as well under him?

“For me to now come forward and say I would have done this or done that, it really has no place,” he said. “The reality is I wasn’t there. Joe Maddon was there. The club had a tremendous amount of success. I’m very happy for all of them.”

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