ESPN News Services
ARLINGTON, Texas — Jon Daniels was the general manager of the Texas Rangers for their only two World Series appearances more than a decade ago. His 17 years leading the club ended with a string of really bad seasons.
Daniels was fired as president of baseball operations Wednesday, when team owner Ray Davis informed him that his contract wouldn’t be renewed at the end of this season. Davis said he had been contemplating the move for several months.
“Bottom line is we’re not good, and we haven’t been good for six years,” Davis said. “To be competitive going forward, I felt that we needed to make a change.”
The dismissal of Daniels came two days after manager Chris Woodward was fired in his fourth season. It also occurred less than nine months after the Rangers committed more than a half-billion dollars to free agent infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien and starting pitcher Jon Gray.
Daniels was the youngest GM ever in the majors when he got the job with the Rangers at age 28 in October 2005. He added the title of president of baseball operations in 2013 and held both roles until Chris Young was brought in as the team’s general manager in December 2020.
Young now assumes oversight of all aspects of the team’s baseball operations department. The former big league pitcher was a senior vice president for Major League Baseball before joining the Texas front office.
“I think Chris will come in with a new vigor and new enthusiasm and be able to build an organization that we can be consistent for many years,” Davis said.
Young was expected to speak with reporters on Thursday and then travel with the team to Minnesota, where Texas begins a four-game series Friday, to talk with players.
The Rangers went to the World Series in 2010 and 2011, then won AL West titles again in 2015 and 2016. They have since slipped into a rebuilding phase and the longest streak of consecutive losing seasons since moving to Texas a half-century ago.
After splitting their first two games under interim manager Tony Beasley, the Rangers would need to win 29 of their last 46 games to avoid another losing season.
Texas lost 102 games last year after going 22-38 during the shortened 2020 season.
Addressing Woodward’s firing on Monday, Daniels said he took a lot of responsibility for the team’s performance over the past six years and acknowledged that the Rangers haven’t been good enough in that span.
“But ultimately, this is a team effort. … When we were good, it wasn’t about me. It’s always been a team effort,” Daniels said. “We have a ways to go. We have a lot of good people here. As far as my personal accountability or situation, that’s something we’ll address down the line.”
That came Wednesday when Davis met with Daniels, whom the owner described as being surprised by the decision.
Daniels issued a statement later Wednesday, thanking the organization, its fans and the media.
“Looking forward to being a dad, husband, and fan. And to see what comes next,” he wrote.
After notifying Daniels, Davis spoke with Young to inform him of what was happening.
While Davis had already made up his mind on the bigger changes, he kept those plans to himself when Daniels and Young approached him Monday about the managerial change. The owner said he agreed on firing Woodward since Young was part of that decision.
“So I separated the two, and did Woody then and Jon now,” Davis said.
The 6-foot-10 Young is a Dallas native who played baseball and basketball at Princeton. He pitched in 13 major league seasons with five teams. His big league debut was with the Rangers in 2004, and he won a World Series title with Kansas City in 2015.
Davis said he made the move now to give Young a head start on the offseason. The owner said the Rangers need a couple of front-end starters and a middle-of-the-lineup bat to go with last winter’s additions of Seager ($325 million, 10 years), Semien ($175 million, seven years) and Gray ($56 million, four years).
“I don’t plan on spending as much money as we did last offseason,” Davis said. “But we plan on spending some money.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
