Rangers To Hire Tommy Joseph As Assistant Hitting Coach

The Rangers are expected to add Tommy Joseph to the coaching staff, per Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. Joseph will serve as an assistant under lead hitting coach Justin Viele.

Joseph has bounced around frequently since joining the coaching ranks in 2021. He got his start as a minor league hitting coach in the Mets system. He took a similar position in 2023 with the Giants. Joseph joined a big-league staff for the first time in 2024, operating as an assistant hitting coach for the Mariners. He most recently worked in the same position with the Orioles.

McFarland adds that Eric Dorton will be retained as an assistant hitting coach. Viele and Dorton joined the organization last season under new manager Skip Schumaker. President of baseball operations Chris Young praised Viele for his efforts in 2026.

“I think he’s done very good things,” Young said, relayed by McFarland. “It didn’t perfectly translate to the run production we needed last year, but, there were improvements offensively in the overall performance. Now we’ve got to translate that individually to the collective and our ability to score runs as a collective group.”

The Rangers struggled on offense last season, ranking 25th in scoring and 20th in OPS as a team. Brandon Nimmo was a solid addition to the middle of the lineup, and Joc Pederson had a strong campaign. Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, and Josh Jung were productive when healthy, but had a tough time staying on the field. As things currently stand, Texas is largely running back the same group in 2027, minus Pederson. Top prospect Sebastian Walcott could be in the mix after recovering from elbow surgery.