The Texas Rangers need a new manager after firing Chris Woodward on Monday. What are they looking for? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?
Texas president Jon Daniels said Monday after Woodward was let go and that said this year’s club was never supposed to be “championship ready.” But the Rangers have also stated that their goal is to have a team that can contend in 2023. General manager Chris Young said part of the reasoning for firing Woodward now was to start that process.
The Rangers’ last three full-time managerial hires have all been first-timers — Ron Washington, Jeff Banister and Chris Woodward. The last time Texas went the experienced route was Buck Showalter, who was hired in 2003 and lasted four seasons and never reached the postseason.
Texas’ ambitions to return to the postseason may color the managerial search. For now, here are six names to watch as the Rangers start looking for a new skipper. Obviously, this isn’t a comprehensive list and other names will surface, especially as more managerial changes are made. But these six names seem like a logical start.
Interim manager Tony Beasley
Monday was Beasley’s first game as a Major League manager. One might be inclined to rule him out. But dive into his history as a coach and you’ll find someone deserving of a shot. He was 590-472 in eight minor-league seasons as a manager, was named a Baseball America Manager of the Year twice and led his teams to six league championships or postseason appearances. The respect level for Beasley, a cancer survivor and coach with the Rangers since 2015, is off the charts among players and team personnel. If any internal candidate gets the job, it will be Beasley.
Ron Washington, Atlanta Braves coach
The Rangers could do much worse that hiring back the manager that led them to the back-to-back World Series in 2010 and '11, and had a career record of 664-611. He has more wins than any manager in Rangers history and he won a ring last season as a coach with the Braves. A former manager circling back to get the same job with his former team? Sometimes that’s how baseball go, right? He will be the fans’ choice, for certain. In fact, one fan started a "We Want Wash" chant during Monday’s, let’s say, sparsely populated game with Oakland.
Bruce Bochy
Bochy stepped out of the Giants managerial position after the 2019 season with three World Series rings. More importantly, he shepherded the Giants to those titles by guiding a young team through its rough patches of stockpiling talent and its prime. That makes him a quality candidate for the Rangers, who have a stocked farm system and a willingness to go out and get some starting pitching this offseason. Bochy is 67, so the question is whether he wants to get back in the game.
Joe Maddon
The Angels fired him earlier this season, but his credentials as a team builder in Tampa Bay are still enticing. He guided a young Rays team to the 2008 World Series and kept them relevant for several years after that. With the Cubs he helped them break the "Curse of the Billy Goat" in 2016 and win the franchise’s first World Series in more than a century. Things didn’t work with the Angels, but the Rangers’ budding farm system is much better equipped for a manager of Maddon’s style. He’s won more than 1,300 games. Age is an issue with Maddon. At 68, is the wine aficionado ready for one more ride or ready to make relax full-time?
Jayce Tingler, Minnesota Twins bench coach
A retread with a Rangers connection. Tingler spent more than a decade with the Rangers as a minor league coach and later as a coach under Banister and Woodward. The Padres hired him in 2020 and in two seasons he won more than 100 games and got the Padres in the 2020 playoffs. He’ll have to answer questions about the Padres’ 2021 collapse, but he’s rehabbed his reputation with the Twins, who are in the thick of a race in the American League Central.
Joe Espada, Houston Astros bench coach
The Rangers took a look at Espada during the search that led them to hire Woodward. Now, he has four more years of experience as a bench coach and has worked with one of the biggest managerial names in baseball in Dusty Baker. He’s also interviewed with the Cubs and the Mets, and it feels like he might finally get the call-up this season. What better way to hurt your rival down south than to steal their most-respected coach?
More must-reads: