Rangers Manager Says Competitors Over Complainers Key to Clubhouse Culture

The Texas Rangers manager gave his first address to his new team as position players reported to spring training on Sunday.

The Texas Rangers logo painted on the turf behind home plate at Globe Life Field. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

SURPRISE, Ariz. — New Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker wanted to wait until his entire roster was assembled before he gave the team a spring training message.

On Sunday, the rest of the position players that hadn’t already filtered into the team’s spring training facility arrived. It was the mandatory reporting date. In full, 66 players were in camp, including new minor league signee Mark Canha, who joined the team on Sunday morning.

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So, what was Schumaker’s message for a team that won the World Series in 2023 but hasn’t been to the playoffs since? It’s about clubhouse culture. It’s about competitors against complainers.

“The separators are the competitors vs. the complainers,” Schumaker said.

Skip Schumaker on Clubhouse Culture

Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

This is Schumaker’s second managerial job. He took over the Miami Marlins in 2023 after he spent time with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals as a coach. He led the Marlins to the playoffs in 2023, but the 2024 season fell apart and he and the franchise parted ways at the end of the season.

Instead of testing the market for a new job, he signed with the Rangers as a special assistant to president of baseball operations Chris Young. It gave him a year to unplug from the dugout. When the Rangers and manager Bruce Bochy parted ways after the franchise expected to buy into younger players, Texas tapped him as manager less than a week later.

For any new manager setting a culture is significant, but he wants the players to set the culture. It’s a separator.

“It’s how you win on the margins,” he said. “I think that’s the separator because there are a lot of talented clubs out there and I think that’s how you can challenge projections.”

Schumaker wasn’t around the team much last year as a special advisor. He joined the team a couple of times a month. So, he was less ingrained in last year’s clubhouse and its culture. But the concept of “competitors vs. complainers” has been a theme for Schumaker so far this spring.

“If you have a couple of complainers or deflators they’ll suck the life out of the clubhouse,” he said. “And I think that’s what you’re trying to get away from, you know, those types. Every team has a couple of them and you’re just trying to eliminate those as much you can.”

He takes over a team that Young has described as “hungry” during interview this offseason. He adjusted the offense by trading second baseman Marcus Semien to the New York Mets for outfielder Brandon Nimmo. He bolstered the rotation by trading prospects to the Washington Nationals for MacKenzie Gore.

Otherwise, the moves have been lower level, including signing relievers Chris Martin, Alexis Díaz and Tyler Alexander. Young is banking that the holdover pieces can bounce back. It’s Schumaker’s job to get that out of players that struggled last year, including Josh Jung, Even Carter and Jake Burger. It’s also the job of hitting coach Justin Viele and pitching coach Jordan Tiegs, both of which were in the organization last year but not in the No. 1 chair.

But they can only do so much.

“What the culture looks like in the clubhouse is ultimately defined by the guys in the clubhouse,” Schumaker said. “It’s up to them.”