Rangers Interview Tony Beasley, Start Managerial Search
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Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young said interim manager Tony Beasley was interviewed for the full-time job on Friday. That's the first step in what Young expects to be a multi-week process to fill the role.
Young didn’t go into specifics about the interview as he spoke to the media for about 30 minutes in wrapping up the Rangers’ 68-94 season.
Young is now fully in charge of the organization’s baseball department after the firing of Jon Daniels, who led baseball operations for nearly 20 years before his dismissal in August. That came two days after the Rangers fired manager Chris Woodward and installed Beasley as the interim manager.
Beasley finished with a 17-31 record. But as Young stated in August, Beasley wouldn’t solely be judged by his record.
“He inherited a difficult situation with a midseason change,” Young said. “We acknowledged that when we made the move we felt like Tony was the right person at the time to help us really re-establish some things that we were missing. And he, in my opinion, succeeded in those areas.”
Beasley is among the coaches that the Rangers have told will have the opportunity to have roles in the organization, pending the outcome of the managerial search. But Young said that Beasley, who spent eight seasons as a successful minor league manager before joining the Rangers, was the only internal candidate to be manager.
Beasley, who has been with the Rangers since 2015, was philosophical about his opportunity when he spoke to the media on the final day of the regular season.
“I hope I’ll have a chance to interview and when that comes up I’ll do it, and we’ll see what comes out of it” Beasley said. “There are no guarantees in this game, myself included. So, I’ve got to earn mine like the rest of us do. No one owes me anything.”
Two coaches that won’t be back with the Rangers are their pitching coaches. On Thursday the Rangers relieved co-pitching coach Doug Mathis of his duties and offered Brendan Sagara, the other co-pitching coach, a different role in the organization.
Additionally, the Rangers have dismissed Triple-A pitching coach Bill Simas and Double-A pitching coach Jeff Andrews.
Young is hopeful that the search can be concluded in three to four weeks, but he admitted that would depend on the postseason and other factors. He did not indicate if any of their potential interviews were involved in postseason play. But Young did say that the organization is in the process of narrowing down what he called a “large master list.”
The only other name that came up on Friday was former San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy, who led the Giants to three World Series titles. He also managed the Padres, and Young played for Bochy for a year.
Young wouldn’t comment specifically about Bochy and a potential candidacy for the job. But he did talk about his one season playing for him.
“I mean, I love playing for Bochy,” Young said. “He was a tremendous manager. I only had one year with him. We had a winning season together. I learned a lot from him. (He) just (has a) calm, steady presence. I have the utmost respect for him. It's no surprise that he went on to win three world championships with the Giants and he's a tremendous person and manager.”
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