So as the 2022 team fades into the background with a 52-64 record, some feelings of disappointment were to be expected. The realization that this won’t be a case of instant gratification was obviously hard for Rangers brass to swallow. Texas fired manager Chris Woodward on Monday and on Wednesday fired John Daniels, the president of baseball operations who led the team since 2005, producing five playoff teams and two AL champions. Perhaps there were underlying tensions or a build-up of grievances. Maybe hiring Chris Young as general manager before 2021 really was the writing on the wall. But whatever the background, it’s surprising to see a team that trusted an experienced executive to commit half a billion dollars this winter turn around and decide to cut him in August. That’s what makes this look more like management per message board, or maybe management for message boards. It’s one thing for fans to see big contracts and expect a playoff team right away. It is another for the property to completely misunderstand reasonable expectations.
2022 Rangers vs. Expectations
Signing Seager, Semien and Gray set up the Rangers for a window of contention. But for anyone seriously considering its chances, it was never expected to open until 2023 or beyond. On opening day, the PECOTA projection system at Baseball Prospectus predicted a 71-win season for the Rangers. The actual season he has played at almost the same level – he is on pace for about 74 wins. The money committed to Seager and Semien is often broadcast as a big, bold number, but it’s an investment that paid off — and paid off — over the next decade. Like Jayson Werth with the Nationals, Manny Machado with the Padres and many other strikeouts, some stars have signed with the understanding that their biggest impact on the win curve might come two or three years later. The story continues That was by far the most likely outcome for Rangers, whose burgeoning stable of young talent had mostly been acquired or recruited months before the spending spree. An honest assessment of the major league team’s season would focus primarily on information related to 2023 and beyond. It should be noted that Seager has been hyped and that Semien has calmed nerves after a rough start. It would mean significant progress for young players like Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras. It would also take into account the Rangers’ abysmal record, an MLB-worst 7-24 in straight games. That’s not a positive, of course, but it’s an almost entirely luck-based event that is likely to stabilize or completely reverse his trajectory in 2023. The Chicago White Sox had MLB’s fourth-worst record in games played in a series last year and the second – the best this year. Based on the Pythagorean record, which calculates a team’s record worth by run differential, the 2022 Rangers played as a 57-59 team. The Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations John Daniels and manager Chris Woodward this week. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Less than a year after being in full selloff mode — Texas traded Joey Gallo to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline — the Rangers are realistically still in the phase where they’re sifting through a lot of potential talent, testing what they can at the big-league level and then picking up the useful pieces. The 2022 club has had some success on that front. Infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith – fruits of the Gallo trade – made their MLB debuts and began to make adjustments. Brock Burke has shown his potential as a bullpen arm with enough talent to stick or become an attractive trade chip. It’s also downgraded in other areas, most notably startup. A big reason the Rangers were never realistically expected to contend this season was the complete lack of a surefire starter beyond Gray. Martin Perez has turned into a nice success story, but ultimately that’s not the most helpful thing for a team looking to compete in 2023 and beyond.
Why fire Jon Daniels now?
The big question isn’t whether 2022 was a win for the organization, but why the clock was striking midnight for Daniels now. He was the top baseball executive in Texas for 17 years and produced more wins than the franchise had ever known. His teams appeared in five postseasons and two World Series where the team had previously only managed three playoff berths (and one miserable win in October) in its history before Daniels took over. Mark Teixeira’s trade mission to Atlanta brought back a monumental prospect that helped change the way the industry values young talent. The decision to sign Adrian Beltre in 2011 turned into one of the best free agent moves in baseball history and almost certainly produced a Hall of Famer in a Rangers hat. Rangers’ recent history is admittedly a more modest one. Owner Ray Davis, one half of a two-headed managerial duo, focused more on that in explaining the decision to fire Daniels on Wednesday, saying, “the bottom line is we haven’t had a winning record since 2016 and for a lot of that time, they weren’t competitive in the AL West division. While I am confident that we are headed in the right direction, I feel that a change in the leadership of baseball operations will be beneficial going forward.” Will it be a change, though? The Rangers tapped Young, the towering former MLB pitcher who served as GM under Daniels, to single-handedly steer the ship. He’s well-respected in the baseball world thanks to his tenure in the league’s front office — and he was in demand when he decided to join the team — but Young’s experience running a front office consists entirely of his time under Daniels . Where the Daniels era faltered was pretty obvious: As Padres GM AJ Preller and other executives like Twins GM Thad Levine flew the coop to run their own teams, the Rangers’ once-famous talent acquisition machine lost steam. . Perhaps more importantly, they haven’t kept up with the contenders in player development. Top prospects like Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman and Willie Calhoun never lived up to their promise, and others like Taveras have inspired anxiety with extended struggles in the upper levels. Still, no one would categorize the Rangers’ situation as hopeless or regressive the way the Detroit Tigers were when they were finally pulled from the plug by GM Al Avila. There’s a strong case that change was needed in Texas, but didn’t it make more sense before Daniels built the (expensive) core of a contender? And didn’t the cracks show in December 2020 when the Rangers slid Young into the front office under Daniels? It’s hard to imagine a radical overhaul that would be achieved by giving Daniels a sub-study and then elevating that sub-study. The Rangers will really be on the clock when 2023 rolls around. Seager and Semien will be 29 and 32, respectively, and fun pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker should at least be knocking on the bigs’ door by the end of the season . They have several long-term commitments, which should be the launching pad for an exciting team. By firing Daniels now, they mostly raise questions about whether they have a long-term plan. If this week’s moves act as a jolt that essentially prepares the organization to better support winning in the 2020s, that’s great. But it’s fair to wonder if it’s just a public display of scapegoating to assuage delusions of grandeur in 2022. And if the team isn’t willing to be honest with their fans, it’s likely they’re not being honest with themselves either.
title: “Rangers Decision To Fire Jon Daniels Now Suggests Unrealistic Expectations After Corey Seager And Marcus Semien Moves Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Eric Henning”
So as the 2022 team fades into the background with a 52-64 record, some feelings of disappointment were to be expected. The realization that this won’t be a case of instant gratification was obviously hard for Rangers brass to swallow. Texas fired manager Chris Woodward on Monday and on Wednesday fired John Daniels, the president of baseball operations who led the team since 2005, producing five playoff teams and two AL champions. Perhaps there were underlying tensions or a build-up of grievances. Maybe hiring Chris Young as general manager before 2021 really was the writing on the wall. But whatever the background, it’s surprising to see a team that trusted an experienced executive to commit half a billion dollars this winter turn around and decide to cut him in August. That’s what makes this look more like management per message board, or maybe management for message boards. It’s one thing for fans to see big contracts and expect a playoff team right away. It is another for the property to completely misunderstand reasonable expectations.
2022 Rangers vs. Expectations
Signing Seager, Semien and Gray set up the Rangers for a window of contention. But for anyone seriously considering its chances, it was never expected to open until 2023 or beyond. On opening day, the PECOTA projection system at Baseball Prospectus predicted a 71-win season for the Rangers. The actual season he has played at almost the same level – he is on pace for about 74 wins. The money committed to Seager and Semien is often broadcast as a big, bold number, but it’s an investment that paid off — and paid off — over the next decade. Like Jayson Werth with the Nationals, Manny Machado with the Padres and many other strikeouts, some stars have signed with the understanding that their biggest impact on the win curve might come two or three years later. The story continues That was by far the most likely outcome for Rangers, whose burgeoning stable of young talent had mostly been acquired or recruited months before the spending spree. An honest assessment of the major league team’s season would focus primarily on information related to 2023 and beyond. It should be noted that Seager has been hyped and that Semien has calmed nerves after a rough start. It would mean significant progress for young players like Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras. It would also take into account the Rangers’ abysmal record, an MLB-worst 7-24 in straight games. That’s not a positive, of course, but it’s an almost entirely luck-based event that is likely to stabilize or completely reverse his trajectory in 2023. The Chicago White Sox had MLB’s fourth-worst record in games played in a series last year and the second – the best this year. Based on the Pythagorean record, which calculates a team’s record worth by run differential, the 2022 Rangers played as a 57-59 team. The Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations John Daniels and manager Chris Woodward this week. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Less than a year after being in full selloff mode — Texas traded Joey Gallo to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline — the Rangers are realistically still in the phase where they’re sifting through a lot of potential talent, testing what they can at the big-league level and then picking up the useful pieces. The 2022 club has had some success on that front. Infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith – fruits of the Gallo trade – made their MLB debuts and began to make adjustments. Brock Burke has shown his potential as a bullpen arm with enough talent to stick or become an attractive trade chip. It’s also downgraded in other areas, most notably startup. A big reason the Rangers were never realistically expected to contend this season was the complete lack of a surefire starter beyond Gray. Martin Perez has turned into a nice success story, but ultimately that’s not the most helpful thing for a team looking to compete in 2023 and beyond.
Why fire Jon Daniels now?
The big question isn’t whether 2022 was a win for the organization, but why the clock was striking midnight for Daniels now. He was the top baseball executive in Texas for 17 years and produced more wins than the franchise had ever known. His teams appeared in five postseasons and two World Series where the team had previously only managed three playoff berths (and one miserable win in October) in its history before Daniels took over. Mark Teixeira’s trade mission to Atlanta brought back a monumental prospect that helped change the way the industry values young talent. The decision to sign Adrian Beltre in 2011 turned into one of the best free agent moves in baseball history and almost certainly produced a Hall of Famer in a Rangers hat. Rangers’ recent history is admittedly a more modest one. Owner Ray Davis, one half of a two-headed managerial duo, focused more on that in explaining the decision to fire Daniels on Wednesday, saying, “the bottom line is we haven’t had a winning record since 2016 and for a lot of that time, they weren’t competitive in the AL West division. While I am confident that we are headed in the right direction, I feel that a change in the leadership of baseball operations will be beneficial going forward.” Will it be a change, though? The Rangers tapped Young, the towering former MLB pitcher who served as GM under Daniels, to single-handedly steer the ship. He’s well-respected in the baseball world thanks to his tenure in the league’s front office — and he was in demand when he decided to join the team — but Young’s experience running a front office consists entirely of his time under Daniels . Where the Daniels era faltered was pretty obvious: As Padres GM AJ Preller and other executives like Twins GM Thad Levine flew the coop to run their own teams, the Rangers’ once-famous talent acquisition machine lost steam. . Perhaps more importantly, they haven’t kept up with the contenders in player development. Top prospects like Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman and Willie Calhoun never lived up to their promise, and others like Taveras have inspired anxiety with extended struggles in the upper levels. Still, no one would categorize the Rangers’ situation as hopeless or regressive the way the Detroit Tigers were when they were finally pulled from the plug by GM Al Avila. There’s a strong case that change was needed in Texas, but didn’t it make more sense before Daniels built the (expensive) core of a contender? And didn’t the cracks show in December 2020 when the Rangers slid Young into the front office under Daniels? It’s hard to imagine a radical overhaul that would be achieved by giving Daniels a sub-study and then elevating that sub-study. The Rangers will really be on the clock when 2023 rolls around. Seager and Semien will be 29 and 32, respectively, and fun pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker should at least be knocking on the bigs’ door by the end of the season . They have several long-term commitments, which should be the launching pad for an exciting team. By firing Daniels now, they mostly raise questions about whether they have a long-term plan. If this week’s moves act as a jolt that essentially prepares the organization to better support winning in the 2020s, that’s great. But it’s fair to wonder if it’s just a public display of scapegoating to assuage delusions of grandeur in 2022. And if the team isn’t willing to be honest with their fans, it’s likely they’re not being honest with themselves either.
title: “Rangers Decision To Fire Jon Daniels Now Suggests Unrealistic Expectations After Corey Seager And Marcus Semien Moves Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Anna Bass”
So as the 2022 team fades into the background with a 52-64 record, some feelings of disappointment were to be expected. The realization that this won’t be a case of instant gratification was obviously hard for Rangers brass to swallow. Texas fired manager Chris Woodward on Monday and on Wednesday fired John Daniels, the president of baseball operations who led the team since 2005, producing five playoff teams and two AL champions. Perhaps there were underlying tensions or a build-up of grievances. Maybe hiring Chris Young as general manager before 2021 really was the writing on the wall. But whatever the background, it’s surprising to see a team that trusted an experienced executive to commit half a billion dollars this winter turn around and decide to cut him in August. That’s what makes this look more like management per message board, or maybe management for message boards. It’s one thing for fans to see big contracts and expect a playoff team right away. It is another for the property to completely misunderstand reasonable expectations.
2022 Rangers vs. Expectations
Signing Seager, Semien and Gray set up the Rangers for a window of contention. But for anyone seriously considering its chances, it was never expected to open until 2023 or beyond. On opening day, the PECOTA projection system at Baseball Prospectus predicted a 71-win season for the Rangers. The actual season he has played at almost the same level – he is on pace for about 74 wins. The money committed to Seager and Semien is often broadcast as a big, bold number, but it’s an investment that paid off — and paid off — over the next decade. Like Jayson Werth with the Nationals, Manny Machado with the Padres and many other strikeouts, some stars have signed with the understanding that their biggest impact on the win curve might come two or three years later. The story continues That was by far the most likely outcome for Rangers, whose burgeoning stable of young talent had mostly been acquired or recruited months before the spending spree. An honest assessment of the major league team’s season would focus primarily on information related to 2023 and beyond. It should be noted that Seager has been hyped and that Semien has calmed nerves after a rough start. It would mean significant progress for young players like Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras. It would also take into account the Rangers’ abysmal record, an MLB-worst 7-24 in straight games. That’s not a positive, of course, but it’s an almost entirely luck-based event that is likely to stabilize or completely reverse his trajectory in 2023. The Chicago White Sox had MLB’s fourth-worst record in games played in a series last year and the second – the best this year. Based on the Pythagorean record, which calculates a team’s record worth by run differential, the 2022 Rangers played as a 57-59 team. The Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations John Daniels and manager Chris Woodward this week. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Less than a year after being in full selloff mode — Texas traded Joey Gallo to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline — the Rangers are realistically still in the phase where they’re sifting through a lot of potential talent, testing what they can at the big-league level and then picking up the useful pieces. The 2022 club has had some success on that front. Infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith – fruits of the Gallo trade – made their MLB debuts and began to make adjustments. Brock Burke has shown his potential as a bullpen arm with enough talent to stick or become an attractive trade chip. It’s also downgraded in other areas, most notably startup. A big reason the Rangers were never realistically expected to contend this season was the complete lack of a surefire starter beyond Gray. Martin Perez has turned into a nice success story, but ultimately that’s not the most helpful thing for a team looking to compete in 2023 and beyond.
Why fire Jon Daniels now?
The big question isn’t whether 2022 was a win for the organization, but why the clock was striking midnight for Daniels now. He was the top baseball executive in Texas for 17 years and produced more wins than the franchise had ever known. His teams appeared in five postseasons and two World Series where the team had previously only managed three playoff berths (and one miserable win in October) in its history before Daniels took over. Mark Teixeira’s trade mission to Atlanta brought back a monumental prospect that helped change the way the industry values young talent. The decision to sign Adrian Beltre in 2011 turned into one of the best free agent moves in baseball history and almost certainly produced a Hall of Famer in a Rangers hat. Rangers’ recent history is admittedly a more modest one. Owner Ray Davis, one half of a two-headed managerial duo, focused more on that in explaining the decision to fire Daniels on Wednesday, saying, “the bottom line is we haven’t had a winning record since 2016 and for a lot of that time, they weren’t competitive in the AL West division. While I am confident that we are headed in the right direction, I feel that a change in the leadership of baseball operations will be beneficial going forward.” Will it be a change, though? The Rangers tapped Young, the towering former MLB pitcher who served as GM under Daniels, to single-handedly steer the ship. He’s well-respected in the baseball world thanks to his tenure in the league’s front office — and he was in demand when he decided to join the team — but Young’s experience running a front office consists entirely of his time under Daniels . Where the Daniels era faltered was pretty obvious: As Padres GM AJ Preller and other executives like Twins GM Thad Levine flew the coop to run their own teams, the Rangers’ once-famous talent acquisition machine lost steam. . Perhaps more importantly, they haven’t kept up with the contenders in player development. Top prospects like Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman and Willie Calhoun never lived up to their promise, and others like Taveras have inspired anxiety with extended struggles in the upper levels. Still, no one would categorize the Rangers’ situation as hopeless or regressive the way the Detroit Tigers were when they were finally pulled from the plug by GM Al Avila. There’s a strong case that change was needed in Texas, but didn’t it make more sense before Daniels built the (expensive) core of a contender? And didn’t the cracks show in December 2020 when the Rangers slid Young into the front office under Daniels? It’s hard to imagine a radical overhaul that would be achieved by giving Daniels a sub-study and then elevating that sub-study. The Rangers will really be on the clock when 2023 rolls around. Seager and Semien will be 29 and 32, respectively, and fun pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker should at least be knocking on the bigs’ door by the end of the season . They have several long-term commitments, which should be the launching pad for an exciting team. By firing Daniels now, they mostly raise questions about whether they have a long-term plan. If this week’s moves act as a jolt that essentially prepares the organization to better support winning in the 2020s, that’s great. But it’s fair to wonder if it’s just a public display of scapegoating to assuage delusions of grandeur in 2022. And if the team isn’t willing to be honest with their fans, it’s likely they’re not being honest with themselves either.
title: “Rangers Decision To Fire Jon Daniels Now Suggests Unrealistic Expectations After Corey Seager And Marcus Semien Moves Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-07” author: “Duane Matias”
So as the 2022 team fades into the background with a 52-64 record, some feelings of disappointment were to be expected. The realization that this won’t be a case of instant gratification was obviously hard for Rangers brass to swallow. Texas fired manager Chris Woodward on Monday and on Wednesday fired John Daniels, the president of baseball operations who led the team since 2005, producing five playoff teams and two AL champions. Perhaps there were underlying tensions or a build-up of grievances. Maybe hiring Chris Young as general manager before 2021 really was the writing on the wall. But whatever the background, it’s surprising to see a team that trusted an experienced executive to commit half a billion dollars this winter turn around and decide to cut him in August. That’s what makes this look more like management per message board, or maybe management for message boards. It’s one thing for fans to see big contracts and expect a playoff team right away. It is another for the property to completely misunderstand reasonable expectations.
2022 Rangers vs. Expectations
Signing Seager, Semien and Gray set up the Rangers for a window of contention. But for anyone seriously considering its chances, it was never expected to open until 2023 or beyond. On opening day, the PECOTA projection system at Baseball Prospectus predicted a 71-win season for the Rangers. The actual season he has played at almost the same level – he is on pace for about 74 wins. The money committed to Seager and Semien is often broadcast as a big, bold number, but it’s an investment that paid off — and paid off — over the next decade. Like Jayson Werth with the Nationals, Manny Machado with the Padres and many other strikeouts, some stars have signed with the understanding that their biggest impact on the win curve might come two or three years later. The story continues That was by far the most likely outcome for Rangers, whose burgeoning stable of young talent had mostly been acquired or recruited months before the spending spree. An honest assessment of the major league team’s season would focus primarily on information related to 2023 and beyond. It should be noted that Seager has been hyped and that Semien has calmed nerves after a rough start. It would mean significant progress for young players like Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras. It would also take into account the Rangers’ abysmal record, an MLB-worst 7-24 in straight games. That’s not a positive, of course, but it’s an almost entirely luck-based event that is likely to stabilize or completely reverse his trajectory in 2023. The Chicago White Sox had MLB’s fourth-worst record in games played in a series last year and the second – the best this year. Based on the Pythagorean record, which calculates a team’s record worth by run differential, the 2022 Rangers played as a 57-59 team. The Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations John Daniels and manager Chris Woodward this week. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Less than a year after being in full selloff mode — Texas traded Joey Gallo to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline — the Rangers are realistically still in the phase where they’re sifting through a lot of potential talent, testing what they can at the big-league level and then picking up the useful pieces. The 2022 club has had some success on that front. Infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith – fruits of the Gallo trade – made their MLB debuts and began to make adjustments. Brock Burke has shown his potential as a bullpen arm with enough talent to stick or become an attractive trade chip. It’s also downgraded in other areas, most notably startup. A big reason the Rangers were never realistically expected to contend this season was the complete lack of a surefire starter beyond Gray. Martin Perez has turned into a nice success story, but ultimately that’s not the most helpful thing for a team looking to compete in 2023 and beyond.
Why fire Jon Daniels now?
The big question isn’t whether 2022 was a win for the organization, but why the clock was striking midnight for Daniels now. He was the top baseball executive in Texas for 17 years and produced more wins than the franchise had ever known. His teams appeared in five postseasons and two World Series where the team had previously only managed three playoff berths (and one miserable win in October) in its history before Daniels took over. Mark Teixeira’s trade mission to Atlanta brought back a monumental prospect that helped change the way the industry values young talent. The decision to sign Adrian Beltre in 2011 turned into one of the best free agent moves in baseball history and almost certainly produced a Hall of Famer in a Rangers hat. Rangers’ recent history is admittedly a more modest one. Owner Ray Davis, one half of a two-headed managerial duo, focused more on that in explaining the decision to fire Daniels on Wednesday, saying, “the bottom line is we haven’t had a winning record since 2016 and for a lot of that time, they weren’t competitive in the AL West division. While I am confident that we are headed in the right direction, I feel that a change in the leadership of baseball operations will be beneficial going forward.” Will it be a change, though? The Rangers tapped Young, the towering former MLB pitcher who served as GM under Daniels, to single-handedly steer the ship. He’s well-respected in the baseball world thanks to his tenure in the league’s front office — and he was in demand when he decided to join the team — but Young’s experience running a front office consists entirely of his time under Daniels . Where the Daniels era faltered was pretty obvious: As Padres GM AJ Preller and other executives like Twins GM Thad Levine flew the coop to run their own teams, the Rangers’ once-famous talent acquisition machine lost steam. . Perhaps more importantly, they haven’t kept up with the contenders in player development. Top prospects like Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman and Willie Calhoun never lived up to their promise, and others like Taveras have inspired anxiety with extended struggles in the upper levels. Still, no one would categorize the Rangers’ situation as hopeless or regressive the way the Detroit Tigers were when they were finally pulled from the plug by GM Al Avila. There’s a strong case that change was needed in Texas, but didn’t it make more sense before Daniels built the (expensive) core of a contender? And didn’t the cracks show in December 2020 when the Rangers slid Young into the front office under Daniels? It’s hard to imagine a radical overhaul that would be achieved by giving Daniels a sub-study and then elevating that sub-study. The Rangers will really be on the clock when 2023 rolls around. Seager and Semien will be 29 and 32, respectively, and fun pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker should at least be knocking on the bigs’ door by the end of the season . They have several long-term commitments, which should be the launching pad for an exciting team. By firing Daniels now, they mostly raise questions about whether they have a long-term plan. If this week’s moves act as a jolt that essentially prepares the organization to better support winning in the 2020s, that’s great. But it’s fair to wonder if it’s just a public display of scapegoating to assuage delusions of grandeur in 2022. And if the team isn’t willing to be honest with their fans, it’s likely they’re not being honest with themselves either.
title: “Rangers Decision To Fire Jon Daniels Now Suggests Unrealistic Expectations After Corey Seager And Marcus Semien Moves Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-13” author: “Glenda Villasenor”
So as the 2022 team fades into the background with a 52-64 record, some feelings of disappointment were to be expected. The realization that this won’t be a case of instant gratification was obviously hard for Rangers brass to swallow. Texas fired manager Chris Woodward on Monday and on Wednesday fired John Daniels, the president of baseball operations who led the team since 2005, producing five playoff teams and two AL champions. Perhaps there were underlying tensions or a build-up of grievances. Maybe hiring Chris Young as general manager before 2021 really was the writing on the wall. But whatever the background, it’s surprising to see a team that trusted an experienced executive to commit half a billion dollars this winter turn around and decide to cut him in August. That’s what makes this look more like management per message board, or maybe management for message boards. It’s one thing for fans to see big contracts and expect a playoff team right away. It is another for the property to completely misunderstand reasonable expectations.
2022 Rangers vs. Expectations
Signing Seager, Semien and Gray set up the Rangers for a window of contention. But for anyone seriously considering its chances, it was never expected to open until 2023 or beyond. On opening day, the PECOTA projection system at Baseball Prospectus predicted a 71-win season for the Rangers. The actual season he has played at almost the same level – he is on pace for about 74 wins. The money committed to Seager and Semien is often broadcast as a big, bold number, but it’s an investment that paid off — and paid off — over the next decade. Like Jayson Werth with the Nationals, Manny Machado with the Padres and many other strikeouts, some stars have signed with the understanding that their biggest impact on the win curve might come two or three years later. The story continues That was by far the most likely outcome for Rangers, whose burgeoning stable of young talent had mostly been acquired or recruited months before the spending spree. An honest assessment of the major league team’s season would focus primarily on information related to 2023 and beyond. It should be noted that Seager has been hyped and that Semien has calmed nerves after a rough start. It would mean significant progress for young players like Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras. It would also take into account the Rangers’ abysmal record, an MLB-worst 7-24 in straight games. That’s not a positive, of course, but it’s an almost entirely luck-based event that is likely to stabilize or completely reverse his trajectory in 2023. The Chicago White Sox had MLB’s fourth-worst record in games played in a series last year and the second – the best this year. Based on the Pythagorean record, which calculates a team’s record worth by run differential, the 2022 Rangers played as a 57-59 team. The Texas Rangers fired president of baseball operations John Daniels and manager Chris Woodward this week. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Less than a year after being in full selloff mode — Texas traded Joey Gallo to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline — the Rangers are realistically still in the phase where they’re sifting through a lot of potential talent, testing what they can at the big-league level and then picking up the useful pieces. The 2022 club has had some success on that front. Infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith – fruits of the Gallo trade – made their MLB debuts and began to make adjustments. Brock Burke has shown his potential as a bullpen arm with enough talent to stick or become an attractive trade chip. It’s also downgraded in other areas, most notably startup. A big reason the Rangers were never realistically expected to contend this season was the complete lack of a surefire starter beyond Gray. Martin Perez has turned into a nice success story, but ultimately that’s not the most helpful thing for a team looking to compete in 2023 and beyond.
Why fire Jon Daniels now?
The big question isn’t whether 2022 was a win for the organization, but why the clock was striking midnight for Daniels now. He was the top baseball executive in Texas for 17 years and produced more wins than the franchise had ever known. His teams appeared in five postseasons and two World Series where the team had previously only managed three playoff berths (and one miserable win in October) in its history before Daniels took over. Mark Teixeira’s trade mission to Atlanta brought back a monumental prospect that helped change the way the industry values young talent. The decision to sign Adrian Beltre in 2011 turned into one of the best free agent moves in baseball history and almost certainly produced a Hall of Famer in a Rangers hat. Rangers’ recent history is admittedly a more modest one. Owner Ray Davis, one half of a two-headed managerial duo, focused more on that in explaining the decision to fire Daniels on Wednesday, saying, “the bottom line is we haven’t had a winning record since 2016 and for a lot of that time, they weren’t competitive in the AL West division. While I am confident that we are headed in the right direction, I feel that a change in the leadership of baseball operations will be beneficial going forward.” Will it be a change, though? The Rangers tapped Young, the towering former MLB pitcher who served as GM under Daniels, to single-handedly steer the ship. He’s well-respected in the baseball world thanks to his tenure in the league’s front office — and he was in demand when he decided to join the team — but Young’s experience running a front office consists entirely of his time under Daniels . Where the Daniels era faltered was pretty obvious: As Padres GM AJ Preller and other executives like Twins GM Thad Levine flew the coop to run their own teams, the Rangers’ once-famous talent acquisition machine lost steam. . Perhaps more importantly, they haven’t kept up with the contenders in player development. Top prospects like Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman and Willie Calhoun never lived up to their promise, and others like Taveras have inspired anxiety with extended struggles in the upper levels. Still, no one would categorize the Rangers’ situation as hopeless or regressive the way the Detroit Tigers were when they were finally pulled from the plug by GM Al Avila. There’s a strong case that change was needed in Texas, but didn’t it make more sense before Daniels built the (expensive) core of a contender? And didn’t the cracks show in December 2020 when the Rangers slid Young into the front office under Daniels? It’s hard to imagine a radical overhaul that would be achieved by giving Daniels a sub-study and then elevating that sub-study. The Rangers will really be on the clock when 2023 rolls around. Seager and Semien will be 29 and 32, respectively, and fun pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker should at least be knocking on the bigs’ door by the end of the season . They have several long-term commitments, which should be the launching pad for an exciting team. By firing Daniels now, they mostly raise questions about whether they have a long-term plan. If this week’s moves act as a jolt that essentially prepares the organization to better support winning in the 2020s, that’s great. But it’s fair to wonder if it’s just a public display of scapegoating to assuage delusions of grandeur in 2022. And if the team isn’t willing to be honest with their fans, it’s likely they’re not being honest with themselves either.
