Chris Woodward Fired; Right Move for Building Texas Rangers?
The Texas Rangers have relieved manager Chris Woodward of his duties, effective Monday. ... and the hard, hard numbers explain the "why.''
The Rangers are coming off a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, which gave Texas a two-game winning streak. But that is not near enough of a "feel-good'' as Texas is 51-63 going into a four-games series with the Oakland Athletics that starts on Monday at Globe Life Field.
And 51-63 was not the expectation this year. Not after the time waiting. Not after the money spent.
The Rangers made the move official shortly thereafter and named third-base coach Tony Beasley as interim manager for the remainder of the 2022 season.
The Rangers hired Woodward, then a coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after the 2018 season. The Rangers went 78-84 in his first season in 2019, the year before the Rangers moved into Globe Life Field — and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Woodward and the Rangers went 22-38 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and then went 60-102 in 2021, as the Rangers went into rebuilding mode after trading Joey Gallo to the New York Yankees for four prospects.
Woodward is 211-287 as Rangers manager.
Texas was playing .500 baseball at the end of May - maybe closer to what was hoped for by his bosses - but is 12 games under .500 since. The Rangers spent a half-billion dollars on contracts for shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien during the offseason.
But the starting rotation has been the chief issue for the Rangers this season. Aside from the excellence of Martin Perez, the Rangers have had trouble building a competent staff. Free-agent signing Jon Gray has a consistent June and part of July before an injury put him out of commission. The Rangers also have Spencer Howard on the injured list.
The Rangers have Dane Dunning, Glenn Otto and rookie Cole Ragans in their rotation and are in need of a starter for Wednesday’s game.
And they are now in need of a manager as well.
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