Three years ago, the Rangers sent a travel party to Nashville to deliver a clear message to Bruce Bochy that the team had deep pockets and a thirst for a World Series title.
They wanted what he had: Skins on the wall.
He accomplished the mission in Year One, but the hangover has left the organization with blurred vision about how to move forward. The roster may change. The payroll may drop. And, so Monday, the club and Bochy decided by “mutual agreement,” that he would not manage the team in 2026. He was offered an advisory role within the organization, but it’s uncertain if he will pursue another managerial opening elsewhere.
“When we went to [Bochy] in 2022, I think we had a little more clarity as to what the vision was and where things stood, and a little more certainty in terms of payroll,” Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said Monday, barely 24 hours after an 81-81 season came to a close. “We don’t have that at this point. And we’re at a point where we needed to make a decision.
“Certainly the first year went great. The next two years not as well. And without having perfect vision and clarity, it’s hard to spell out all the details of what this would [look like].”
Related
The Rangers needed to make a decision on the managerial situation quickly because they’ve got a very strong candidate already on staff in special assistant Skip Schumaker. And with dismissals happening in San Francisco and Minnesota on Monday, the possibility of Schumaker being wooed elsewhere grows.
Schumaker, 45, won NL Manager of the Year in 2023 with Miami in his rookie managerial season, leading a young Marlins team to the playoffs for only the fourth time in the franchise’s history. After a front office change above him in 2024, Schumaker left the club just before the end of the season. He joined the Rangers in a senior advisory role a couple of months later as a potential managerial successor.
On Monday, Young acknowledged that Schumaker would be a candidate for the job, but kept the focus on what Bochy did for the Rangers. He finished his career at 249-237 (.512), the third best-winning percentage in club history for any manager with at least 500 games. He remains the only one to win a World Series. And he is sixth all-time in managerial wins with 2,252, 74 behind Joe Torre.
Young did acknowledge that there will likely be an element of “player development,” with the 2026 Rangers with a number of younger players continuing to assume roles. While not a slight at Bochy, it is generally believed that at age 70, he’s more suited to manage a veteran team.
“When you don’t reach your goals, there’s a lot that you have to improve,” said Young, who was frustrated with the offensive regression of the last two years. “So we’re going to be focused on that. I’d like to say we kind of slumped to 81 wins with a lot of injuries here at the end. But I’d also say we never played our best baseball. The next manager will be challenged with helping us improve in a lot of areas and doing it potentially with a younger core group of players.”
The Rangers’ payroll, expected to be a couple of hundred thousand dollars above the $241 million CBT threshold, is expected to drop for 2026. TV revenue has dropped from the days of bloated cable contracts. Dark clouds linger over the next collective bargaining agreement negotiations, with the current CBA to expire after the 2026 season. The Rangers have maintained a top 10 payroll the last two years with nothing to show for it. All of which leads to the possibility of trimming payroll.
It was a difficult day for Young, who read a lengthy statement at the outset of the press conference, extolling Bochy’s numerous qualities.
“He brought instant credibility, wisdom and legitimacy to a team looking to emerge from a rebuild,” Young said. “It only took him one season to accomplish a goal that had eluded this organization for 52 years, and while the last two seasons have fallen short of our goals, [Bochy] will forever be a legend in Texas Rangers history. Beyond his Hall of Fame pedigree as a manager, he’s one of the best people this game has ever seen. His tremendous humility and sense of humor blended with an intense competitiveness and care for his staff and players. I will forever cherish our friendship.”
For his part, Bochy told The Dallas Morning News that his return to managing had been “a blast” after three years away from the game following 25 seasons and three World Series titles with San Diego and San Francisco.
“We talked about getting Ray Davis a skin on the wall and we did,” he said. “I’ve had a blast managing this group. To be with the players has been so much fun. We had a rough 2024, but I was proud of the way the guys and the staff fought this year. We could have tanked it with all they went through, but we went into the last week fighting for a playoff spot. I feel good about what we accomplished here.”
He chose not to discuss any future plans, saying he was mostly “reflecting,” on Monday.
Then, the lover of old Westerns signed off, in the most Texas way possible, citing the closing of Lonesome Dove.
“It’s like [Gus McCrae] says: It’s been a hell of a ride.”
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Source link
