At midseason the Texas Rangers are in first place. How much credit goes to that guy?

The Texas Rangers are in first place in the American League West, and Jon Daniels deserves credit.

Some.

Not all.

As much blame as the long time former GM and president of baseball operations earned for the continued terrible state of the team he built, now that they are the biggest surprise in all of Major League Baseball he deserves praise, too.

Some.

Not all.

We are at the halfway point of the 2023 MLB season, and the Texas Rangers are on pace for their best season in forever, and to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The Rangers have cooled a bit in June from their record-pace first two months, but it’s hard to be down on this team.

Many of these current players are here via moves he made, or approved. If we did the same thing for Nolan Ryan, JD deserves similar treatment.

Also, their spot in first place does not mean that the Rangers, and owner Ray Davis, were hasty in dismissing JD. How it was handled, and the timing, was awkward, but he had to go. It was time.

He probably knew it, too.

JD still lives in the area, and works as an advisor for the Tampa Rays. He doesn’t have to work another day in his life, which, good for him.

The way the team was run had grown stale, at least; the line between manager and the front office was too blurred.

How the Rangers operated their game-day preparation and business was not too different than many other clubs, but it wasn’t working.

JD hiring Chris Woodward after firing Jeff Banister in 2018 as manager was one of those “everyone else is doing it” decisions.



Woodward was part of a long line of former ex-players who were not too far removed from their playing careers; they could be easily influenced by the front office how to set up a lineup card, and manage a game.

That trend neutered managers; even rational baseball people asked what was the point of having a manager if the front office was going to make every decision.

In Woodward’s defense, he was not given a competitive roster; when the team fired him, days before JD was dismissed, everyone associated with the decision said it wasn’t on Woody.

The best move Young has made thus far was to quietly acknowledge the manager matters, and to convince Bruce Bochy to unretire and come back to the dugout to manage.

“I don’t think I’ve changed in the way I am managing,” Bochy said in the Rangers’ dugout during a recent home stand.

That sentence says so much without many words.

There is no way Bochy comes out of retirement if the Rangers are run and operated the way they were under Jon Daniels. Young prefers a more conventional model where the manager manages the players without the assistance (interference?) from a GM, or the front office.

Bochy has done too much in Major League Baseball, and been too successful, to sit in a dugout and take orders on how to manage game.

“The game has changed. When I first started (managing) in 1995, I had to do everything,” Bochy said of his first managerial job, with the San Diego Padres. “There is a lot more information now.”

Some might call a lot more “information” over kill.

The second-best move Young made was to convince pitching coach Mike Maddux to delay his retirement, and to come back to the Rangers. JD letting Maddux walk after the 2015 season reeked of ego more than a salary-related slash.

The Rangers currently have the fifth-best team ERA in the American League, and one of the better pitching staffs in baseball.

That’s not all because of Mike Maddux. It’s also not a coincidence.

Those dugout decisions were entirely on Chris Young.

The area of player personnel is where you can still see a lot of Jon Daniels.

Players such as third baseman Josh Jung, catcher Jonah Heim, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, outfielder Adolis Garcia, Leody Tavares, and a few others came to the Rangers on JD’s watch.

Few GM’s in baseball were better at finding the Garcia types; JD had no problem taking flyers on an obscure, or potentially outdated, name and seeing for himself if there was anything there.

Garcia’s contract was purchased by the Rangers in the winter of 2019 from the St. Louis Cardinals, and now he’s on the fringe of making the All-Star team for the second time in his career.

Acquisitions such as free agents Corey Seager, Jon Gray and Marcus Semien are more of a gray; they were all added not long after JD hired Young to be GM, and he moved himself into the role as president of baseball operations.

As the current GM of the team, Young’s “name is on it,” so he will receive most of the praise. Justifiably.

Jon Daniels deserves credit, too.

Some.

Not all.