Rick George is gone.
But the drama in the Texas Rangers' front office remains.
With George's resignation as the organization's President of Business Operations yesterday to take the post as Colorado's Athletic Director, the cracks in the Rangers' foundation are re-surfacing. It was just four months ago - on a surreal spring training day in Surprise - that George was promoted, general manager Jon Daniels added a title of President of Baseball Operations and iconic legend Nolan Ryan was unceremoniously stripped of power by ownership.
In the wake of those moves Ryan pondered leaving the club, but decided to swallow his pride and stay. Now, with George gone, the Rangers' hiring in that hole could determine Ryan's long-term future in Arlington. If the Rangers promote from within, a satiated Ryan will likely remain invested in the team. But if the Rangers turn to a Daniels guy or even consider a national search, Big Tex might just become Big Ex.
None of this, of course, has any effect on the Rangers as they prepare for the post-All-Star schedule Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles. But it might change the face of the franchise.
And, again, I remain steadfast in my belief that Daniels - not Ryan - is the more significant player in the Rangers' front office.
Why?
(continued from page 1)
It was Jon Daniels who
orchestrated the Mark Teixeira heist. It was Jon Daniels who hired Ron Washington.
It was Jon Daniels who traded for Josh Hamilton. It was Jon Daniels who
assembled a baseball operations staff of savvy scouts and who so stockpiled the
Texas Rangers that Baseball America ranked their farm system No. 1
just two years after gauging it No. 27.
And he did it all before
Nolan Ryan returned to Arlington in 2008.
“We’ve seen Nolan win one
of these battles with Chuck Greenberg,” a Rangers’ source told me back in March in Surprise. “But this one he’s going to lose. If it’s one or the other, the
Rangers are prepared to hitch their wagon to JD.”
Nolan is a local treasure, the Rangers' representative on the Metroplex's Mount Sportsmore. But Daniels is the shrewd baseball man that will maneuver the club to its first World Series.
“I still report to Nolan,
yes,” Daniels told me in March. “I think he’ll be here in his same
role at the end of spring training and the end of the season. Of course I do. I
don’t want him to leave.”
At the time owner Bob Simpson, who
teams with Ray Davis as the two major voices of controlling interest, said it
would be a tragedy if Ryan departed the franchise. But here’s the genesis of the
drama that could land Daniels in power and Ryan in retirement.
The Ryan-Daniels
relationship has always been as clunky as comfortable. The kid was educated at
Cornell; the legend in the clubhouse. But it worked, and the end result were
key personnel moves like trading for Cliff Lee and acquiring Yu Darvish and the
Rangers peaked with consecutive World Series appearances in 2010-11.
(continued from page 2)
It was then, just a month after coming within one strike of beating the St. Louis Cardinals for the
championship, that the Rangers' axis began to wobble. Player development director
Scott Servais took a job with the Anaheim Angels. Daniels, of course, assumed
the position would be filled from within by promoting one in his stable of
talented baseball people, like, perhaps, assistant GM Thad Levine. Ryan, of
course, as the team’s President and CEO, assumed he would be allowed to fill
the position with his preference.
And the winner was … Ryan,
who hired Tim Purpura. The Rangers’ new farm director just so happened to have
been the Houston Astros’ GM at a time when Ryan was a special assistant and
owned two Astros’ farm teams. He was Nolan’s guy. As later were Jackie Moore
and Mike Maddux as new additions to the Rangers’ coaching staff.
It was a power play by
Ryan, whose ego may be even bigger than his legend. While he was putting his
individual stamp on the organization’s personnel, Daniels was feeling
emasculated. He and his prior work was being engulfed by Ryan’s 10-gallon hero.
And just like that, the top-ranked staff he put together was feeling
road-blocked by his boss.
Two years later the
solution was to give Daniels more power in the form of a promotion to President
of Baseball Operations. In the same press release, George was elevated to President of Business Operations. And, though still atop the flow chart, Ryan’s
power was diminished, if not altogether neutered.
Truth? Ryan still wants to
prove he’s got his Hall-of-Fame fastball. But he’s not fully invested,
unflinchingly engaged or directly involved in the Rangers’ day-to-day baseball
decisions. Like Daniels has been, since 2005.
(continued from page 3)
I get it, he’s Nolan Ryan.
7 no-hitters. 300 wins. 5,000 strikeouts. There are two bobblehead nights at
Rangers Ballpark this season: Yu Darvish and, yep, Nolan. Fair or not to
Daniels, it’s Ryan who gets credit for resurrecting the Rangers into winners.
And his bloodied headlock of Robin Ventura remains, to most fans, one of the
greatest moments in franchise history.
Nolan Ryan is the Big Tex
of the State Fair. He’s iconic and cool and the face of the place. But, um, he’s
not a ride or a fried food or really anything more tangible than the guy who
sits next to George Dubya Bush. A larger-than-life mascot, if you will.
Ryan has three years left
on his contract but he just might walk away as the sour grapes loser of a tug-of-war
with a younger, brighter baseball mind. Make no mistake, Ryan can
remain CEO of the Texas Rangers. But he’ll do it with weakened authority and
without veto power on Jon Daniels’ baseball moves.
Or, once unthinkable, Ryan
can leave the Texas Rangers.
You explained Daniels worth to the Rangers, all I see Nolan as, and I'm a late 30's guy, is a figure head. Yes I remember him being an Astro and then a Ranger, I'll never forget the spider monkeys, but I want Daniels with the Rangers more than Nolan. There aren't many front office guys in MLB that get as much exposure as Nolan does, but what's more important? That or actual roster decisions? You can't tell me that Nolan knows more about the Rangers system than Daniels does.
ReplyDeleteI dont think it was Daniels who changed the mindset of the pitching staff. Before Nolan came, they were satified with a starter going 4 innings.
ReplyDeleteNolan talked about non-sissying the pitchers and it sounded good to the fans, but was it really ever implemented? You can't teach that at the MLB level, these guys have been conditioned to go ~6 or so innings and at 100 pitches. The only way to do it is at the low levels of the minor leagues so they can withstand more pitches at a young age and hopefully keep up that stamina as they get older. And the Rangers haven't done that.
DeleteThere hasn't been a culture change with pitch counts, outside of maybe Yu Darvish, and that's because he was signed to be a workhorse. But we're seeing now that even with Yu too many pitches can have an effect on their health.
I love Nolan, and appreciate what he meant to The Rangers in the 90's. That said, I want him to go away. I don't want his anti-moneyball mentality. Sabermetrics, statistics, and good money management have gotten The Rangers really freaking close to being Champions, and helped St. Louis get their 11th.
ReplyDeleteI am so sick of people treating Daniels like a fucking genius. Everything that he has done right can be traced back to that one Tex trade to Atlanta. EVERY GM in baseball would have made that trade. Atlanta was dumb enough to think he would sign long term so they traded their whole farm system to get him. It wasn't a shrewd business move by Daniels. He was on the lucky side of a very dumb deal. What else exactly has the guy done that's so great? Hamilton for Volquez. A problem for a problem. He traded away Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter for Uehara and they couldn't keep him. Or Mike Adams. Or Cliff Lee. Napoli is a Red Sock for 5 million per year. The best things he has done was a gift from Atlanta and being around for the money to be available to sign Beltre.
ReplyDelete