Rudy Jaramillo has spent the past 15 years as the hitting coach in Texas, but he’s now a free agent after leaving the Rangers earlier this week:
Jaramillo is reportedly looking for a multi-year contract rather than the one-year deal offered by the Rangers and he’s likely to get it, as multiple teams are already said to be in the mix for one of the most successful, longest-tenured hitting coaches in baseball history. Before landing in Arlington he coached a Rookie of the Year named Jeff Bagwell in Houston and Jaramillo has presided over Rangers hitters winning four MVP awards, as Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Young, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark Teixeira, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Rusty Greer, Hank Blalock, and most recently Nelson Cruz are just some of the players who’ve thrived under his tutelage. In his 15 seasons on the job the Rangers have ranked among the league’s top three in scoring five times while ranking below average just twice. On the other hand the hitter-friendly ballpark in Texas has played a huge part in those numbers and even after 15 years of prolonged success the Rangers’ management still had some public criticisms about the team’s situational hitting this season, which perhaps made Jaramillo’s decision to leave a bit easier. We’ve come a long way in terms of analyzing the impact of everything on the field, but evaluating the impact of coaches remains focused on reputations and guesswork. Jaramillo is generally considered one of the best hitting coaches around and he’s about to be paid like someone who’ll make an immediate impact on his new team’s offense, but as Leo Mazzone’s struggles in Baltimore showed even the best coaches can’t always transfer their success to new homes.