Chris

Woodward

Woodward is out after four seasons in Texas. He received a contract extension last November, which would’ve kept him with the Rangers through the 2023 season and also included a club option for 2024 as well. The Rangers have failed to live up to the lofty expectations a flurry of high-profile offseason moves, most notably signing Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to massive contracts in free agency, generated heading into this season, going a pedestrian 51-63 (.447) with Woodward at the helm. He exits with a lackluster 211-287 record since 2019. Tony Beasley will take over as the Rangers interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Woodward had been set to enter his final year under contract but now should have a little more peace of mind. The Rangers are coming off a 102-loss season but are expected to be big spenders this offseason.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported Sunday that an agreement was in place and now the Rangers have formally announced the hiring. Hyers, who just turned 50 years old, had served as the hitting coach of the Red Sox for the last four seasons following a two-year stint as the assistant hitting coach of the Dodgers.

The 50-year-old has spent the last four seasons as the hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox before leaving last week to pursue other opportunities. Hyers will work with Donnie Ecker, who was hired earlier in the week to be the team’s bench coach and offensive coordinator.

Ecker has spent the last two seasons as the Giants hitting coach, where they led the National League with a .769 OPS this past season. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News adds that the 35-year-old former major leaguer, who was drafted by the Rangers back in 2007, will be given an expanded role overseeing the organization’s hitting program at the minor-league level as well.

Rangers manager Chris Woodward will be back for a fourth season -- his 2022 option was exercised back in late March -- but there will be quite a few changes to the staff around him. According to Grant, the statuses of assistant hitting coach Callix Crabbe and run production coordinator Alex Burg will be decided by the next head hitting instructor. Texas ranked dead-last in combined team OPS (.670) during the 2021 regular season.

This had seemed to be in the works. The Rangers are just 100-122 in two seasons under Woodward, although the talent deficiency is mostly to blame for that. Texas is set for another rebuilding year in 2021 but didn’t want to leave their manager uncertain about his future beyond this season.

It’s an outside-the-box idea. Mathis -- who was the bullpen coach in 2020 -- will work out of the dugout and Sagara will be in the bullpen, but they’ll split up the overall duties. The duo will take the place of Julio Rangel, who was let go earlier this month after the team posted a 5.02 ERA this past season. The Rangers also announced Monday that Bobby Wilson will join the staff as catching coach.

He will replace Julio Rangel, who will not be brought back for the 2021 season. Mathis will certainly have his work cut out for him, after the Rangers compiled a 5.02 team ERA in 2020 -- good for 24th in all of baseball. An official announcement should be made some time after the World Series concludes.

Rangel was hired as the Rangers’ pitching coach in November 16, 2018, so he essentially spent two seasons with Texas -- if we’re counting 2020 as a full campaign. Things went well in 2019, but this year’s pitching staff registered a 24th-ranked 5.02 combined team ERA while getting hit with major injuries and major trades.