Accountability Finally Caught Rangers President Jon Daniels
When former Texas Rangers team president Jon Daniels talked to the media Monday, he was reporter about accountability.
Daniels and general manager Chris Young were at the dias during the press conference announcing the firing of manager Chris Woodward when the question came up. Daniels had been with the Rangers since 2002 and worked his way through the ranks to the highest title in the organization. But the Rangers hadn’t had a winning season since 2016. The running of the baseball side of the Rangers fell to him.
Accountability seemed like a fair question. Daniels agreed. But he didn’t quite accept accountability.
“I kind of separate accountability and responsibility and I take a lot of responsibility for our performance over the last six years,” Daniels said. “And we haven't been good enough. As far as my role in the organization, we have made a meaningful change in bringing in (Young) in his role.
“But you know, ultimately is a team effort. When we were good it wasn't about me. It's always been a team effort. And I think we have a ways to go. We have a lot of good people here. As far as my personal accountability or situation, I think that's fine. We can pull address down the line.”
It's unlikely Daniels thought it would be addressed 48 hours later by the team’s principal owner, Ray Davis. He told Daniels his contract would not be renewed and that his time with the Rangers was done. Davis said Daniels was “surprised.”
Should Daniels have been surprised that accountability caught up with him on Wednesday?
Probably not.
If he thought the team hadn’t “been good enough,” the accountability for that has to fall to someone. The Rangers didn’t try to scapegoat Woodward on Monday. Far from it. They weren’t happy with how he was running the team, specifically its preparation for games. Both Daniels and Young made that clear.
But Daniels is the one that provided Woodward most of those raw materials. What’s the old Bill Parcells quote?
“If they want you to cook the dinner,” Parcells famously said, “at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”
In baseball, the baseball leadership provides the ingredients. It’s up to the manager and the coaching staff to put it together. But a manager and coaching staff can only do so much. If the ingredients aren’t good enough, the team won’t be good enough.
You could apply that logic to the Rangers the past six seasons. The ingredients haven’t been good enough. You can blame the pandemic. You can blame the commitment to the rebuild. You can blame whatever you wish. Both Daniels and Young told reporters on Monday that this team was better than its record indicated. They believe that.
On Wednesday Daniels paid for it.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
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