The Rangers Hire a New Skip

Friday afternoon Chris Young and Ross Fenstermaker had their end-of-year press conference and spoke to the writers. CY mentioned that they had only one candidate in their managerial search who was already in the organization. I think everyone knew who that internal candidate was (It was Skip Schumaker).

I expected the Rangers to officially announce Schumaker's hiring within the next few days, but at 7:45 p.m., reports emerged that the Rangers and Schumaker had agreed to a four-year deal.

I really like this hire by the Rangers. Although Skip has just two years of managerial experience, he was named NL Manager of the Year in 2023 after leading the Marlins to the playoffs. He is also well respected around the industry, and was probably on a lot of team's managerial candidate lists.

Schumaker played 11 years in the big leagues and retired after the 2015 season. He played for 3 teams those being the Cardinals, Reds, and Dodgers. Immediately after his playing career he started to transition into coaching, and got a job with the San Diego Padres. He served as an Assistant to Baseball Operations and Player Development for the Padres from 2016 to 2017. 

In 2018, he was promoted to first base coach and later became associate manager under Andy Green. He then went to the Cardinals in 2022 and was given the bench coach role. After the 2022 season he was hired as manager of the Miami Marlins, and he ended up getting them to the playoffs. He also was awarded with NL Manager of the Year that same year. He returned next season to the Marlins to manage, but he stepped away from the team for a for a family emergency at the end of the season. He and the Marlins agreed to part ways after the 2024 season. Then in the offseason going into 2025 the Rangers hired him as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young with the probable believe he would take over as manager after future hall of fame manager Bruce Bochy.