You read that right, Joe Mikulik, will not return as the manager of the RoughRiders in 2020.
Most of the beat writers, including Evan Grant and Jeff Wilson both tweeted this afternoon that the Rangers have informed him that he would not be back.
Rangers have informed AAA manager Jason Wood & AA manager Joe Mikulik they will not return
? Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) September 3, 2019
#Rangers will not renew contracts of Triple A Nashville manager Jason Wood, pitching coach Brian Shouse, bullpen coach Eric Gagne and Double A manager Joe Mikulik won’t return in 2020.
? Jeff Wilson (@JeffWilson_FWST) September 3, 2019
We’ve been used to seeing Mikulik lead the RoughRiders for the last 5 seasons. This season, the RoughRiders tied their best record since 2014 at 68-71. So they’ve had losing seasons for a while.?
His total record managing the RoughRiders is 311-386.
His managing record by year for the RoughRiders:
2015: 60-79
2016: 63-76
2017: 60-80
2018: 60-80
2019: 68-71
The purpose of the farm system is not to win every game possible. While winning games is nice, it’s about development of players and helping the big league club win. That’s what it’s about.
While I wasn’t close to him from what I saw Mikulik was great with his players and was nice to me when I met him on Media Day. I don’t think this is a knock on him in any way.
It seems as though the Rangers want to have a little of everything. Change started with the big league club and is now trickling down to the farm system. Some people think the Rangers will be leaning towards replacements that will be using more analytics to help them with their game management decisions.
The Rangers are likely to promote from within for the next Double-A manager?
