Rangers continue cleaning house, fire president of baseball operations

The Texas Rangers continue to facelift the organization, this time by firing their president of baseball operations

On Tuesday, news hit that Chris Woodward is out as the Texas Rangers manager. An early report from Jeff Passan indicated that the move comes, “amid a season of dissatisfactory progress despite the investment of more than a half-billion guaranteed dollars in the free agent market over the winter.”

Now, the team is parting ways with the person who authorized those offseason moves and lavish free agency spending. Rangers President of Baseball Operations, Jon Daniels is now fired according to Ken Rosenthal.

After going 52-64 so far in the season, the Rangers are 22.0 games back in the AL West, continuing a trend of disappointing results for the Rangers.

Rangers President of Baseball Operations Jon Daniels has been fired

Daniels has been with the team for 17 years, and upon being named Rangers General Manager in 2005, he became the then-youngest GM in the history of the MLB at 28.

A statement vis the team’s press department indicated that ownership’s reasoning for parting ways has been the lack of playoff appearances since 2016.

The letter from owner Ray Davis, which started by nodding to the accomplishments of Jon and his team, went on to say:

"“But the bottom line is we have not had a winning record since 2016 and for much of that time, have not been competitive in the A.L. West Division. While I am certain we are heading in the right direction, I feel a change in the leadership of the baseball operations department will be beneficial going forward.”"

In one fell swoop, the team has also named a replacement: Chris Young, who was previously Rangers Executive Vice President & General Manager. Young had a 13-year MLB career prior to becoming an executive and worked for the MLB prior to joining the Rangers.

Davis said of Young, per a press release:

"“Chris Young is one of the top young baseball executives in the business and in his 21 months on the job has brought welcome energy and new ideas to the organization. I am confident in Chris’ ability to lead our baseball operations with the goal of producing a consistent winner on the field.”"

It’s a cutthroat world out there in pro sports, and if you’re not winning, you’re not moving forward.

The Rangers have invested a lot into the team in recent years, not only in payroll but also in facilities. Their Globe Life Park opened in 2020, but was paid for in part with public bonds.