Former Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels is now a senior advisor to the Tampa Bay Rays, a move announced on Friday.
Daniels, who spent 17 years in charge of baseball operations for the Rangers and 20 years with the organization, will now work with Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander.
The Rays said that Daniels “will be supporting baseball ops senior leadership while utilizing his extensive experience in the industry to help further inform decision-making.”
The Rangers fired Daniels in mid-August, part of a pair of moves the Rangers made to re-make the organization heading into this offseason. The other was the firing of manager Chris Woodward, which came 48 hours before Daniels was shown the door.
General manager Chris Young assumed leadership of all Rangers baseball operations after Daniels left. Young hired Bruce Bochy as manager last month.
Daniels joined the Texas baseball operations department in 2002 and was appointed as the Rangers’ eighth general manager on Oct. 4, 2005. He was promoted to president of baseball operations in March 2013.
Daniels hired manager Ron Washington, who led the Rangers to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. The Rangers also made the postseason five times in a 13-season span with Daniels in charge.
But Daniels was also responsible for the three managerial hires after Washington, none of which led the Rangers back to the World Series.
“Beyond the wins and losses, this is as good of a person as you’re going to find in this game,” Neander said. “That leadership experience, combined with such a high confidence and trust in the person, to bring him to our group — which is, in my opinion, a really talented group but also a relatively inexperienced group. … I feel like he can only accelerate the professional development of our leadership team.”
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