Rangers Hire Travis Jankowski As First Base Coach
The Rangers announced a few coaching staff hirings this afternoon. Most notably, they’ve named Travis Jankowski their first base coach. That suggests the 34-year-old is retiring after a playing career that spanned parts of 11 big league campaigns.
Jankowski carved out a solid career as a speed and defense depth outfielder. He played in more than 700 MLB contests and tallied nearly 1800 trips to the plate. The lefty batter hit .236/.318/.305 with 366 knocks and 104 stolen bases. Jankowski had very little power and only connected on 11 home runs, but he collected 54 doubles and 10 triples. He drove in 98 runs and scored 220 times.
A former supplemental first-round pick of the Padres, Jankowski spent the first five seasons of his career in San Diego. He’d go on to play for eight teams overall, including the 2023-24 campaigns in Arlington. Jankowski’s best season came in 2023. He had a personal-best .263 average while reaching base at a strong .357 clip for the World Series team. Jankowski picked up another three hits and a pair of RBI in nine postseason at-bats. His numbers tailed off the following season, and he apparently concluded his playing career with 25 games split between the White Sox, Rays and Mets this year.
Jankowski is a known commodity to the Texas front office. While his time as a player in Texas came under Bruce Bochy, he also has ties to new manager Skip Schumaker. The Rangers skipper was the first base coach in San Diego for Jankowski’s final two seasons as a Padre in 2018-19. Jankowski now takes on that role in Arlington, where he’ll presumably also be involved in outfield and basestealing instruction.
Texas also confirmed the previously reported hiring of Alex Cintrón as assistant hitting coach. They’ve added Rod Barajas as a quality control coach, a move that was first announced last week by Rocket City Trash Pandas broadcaster Chris Harris. Barajas coached for that affiliate, the Angels’ Double-A team, in 2025. He has previously spent time on the Padres and Marlins big league staffs with Schumaker.
The Rangers also hired Colby Suggs as bullpen coach. (Dan Hayes of The Athletic had reported last week that the 34-year-old Suggs was likely to take a job in Texas.) He’d held the same role with the Twins since the middle of the 2022 season.
Suggs takes over the bullpen coach role from Jordan Tiegs, who gets a promotion to pitching coach. The 38-year-old was a longtime minor league pitching instructor in the Texas system before getting his first MLB coaching opportunity this past season. The Rangers lost veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux to the Angels, and they’re staying internal with the much younger Tiegs to fill that position.
There are a more few role changes among the holdovers from Bochy’s final coaching staff. Justin Viele is now the lead hitting coach after splitting that job with Bret Boone this year. Texas had already announced that Corey Ragsdale would move from first base to third base coach. Brett Hayes moves from quality control coach to catching coach. Bench coach Luis Urueta and assistant pitching coach Dave Bush are back in the same roles. Texas will make one additional hire in a yet to be determined role to round out the staff.
Marlins Will Not Retain Any Of 2024 Coaching Staff
1:20pm: Also among the cuts were head athletic trainer Lee Meyer and strength & conditioning coach Brendan Verner, per Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. None of the coaches being dismissed were under contract for the 2025 season, per the report. Still, an overhaul of this magnitude is borderline unprecedented in recent big league history.
11:40am: The Marlins are gutting their coaching staff, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the entire staff has been informed it will not return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that there are a couple “exceptions” who have been told there’s some interest in a reunion, but even that’s dependent on the hiring of the incoming manager and any preferences that person may have. Specifically, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been told there’s interest in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Both will be free to pursue other opportunities in the meantime, however.
All of this aligns with a report last night from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who tweeted that the Marlins’ firings were being described to him as a “blood bath” that extended to the coaching staff, clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.
Manager Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of the worst-kept secrets around the league. The former big league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was hired by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and won NL Manager of the Year honors last season in his rookie effort. His original two-year contract included an option for the 2025 season. However, after the Marlins hired Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to walk away from the organization. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the club’s direction — understandably so, given last year’s playoff berth — and management agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal in order to allow him to explore new opportunities.
In addition to Urueta and Jay, today’s news presumably indicates that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo and field coordinator Rod Barajas will all be at the very least free to pursue other opportunities, if not dismissed outright.
Among the group, Stottlemyre figures to be a particularly hot commodity on the coaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on big league coaching staffs, serving as both a pitching coach and bullpen coach in addition to prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s worked with the D-backs and Mariners organizations in the past but has spent the past seven years as the pitching coach in Miami, building a strong reputation along the way.
While the Marlins have regularly been a doormat in the NL East — with the exception of the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a strong core of touted young pitching has been a hallmark of the team in recent years. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit for that, of course, but his influence on the staff and the organization’s pitching development as a whole is clear. Cepeda, it should be noted, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre throughout his time in the organization. He was hired as the Marlins’ bullpen coach back in 2019. The two have worked alongside one another for seven years.
That’s not to say others on the staff won’t be coveted free agents in their own right. Urueta spent 15 years in the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach under Torey Lovullo, and has interviewed for MLB managerial posts in the past. Mabry and Mueller, in addition to lengthy big league careers, have extensive coaching backgrounds across multiple organizations. Barajas, who also had a lengthy big league career, has served as the bench coach and interim manager of the Padres and has interviewed for various managerial posts in recent years (in addition to several years as a minor league manager in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat speculates that Jay could wind up a target of the Cardinals, for whom he played six MLB seasons — though Jay could also join Schumaker wherever he lands his next managerial assignment.
Broadly speaking, the Miami coaching staff can hardly be faulted for the disastrous record this season. Bendix spent most of the 2023-24 offseason focused on reshaping the baseball operations department and did little to augment the actual Marlins roster. Injuries waylaid much of the pitching staff, and when Miami opened the season with a significant losing streak, the front office wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early May, signaling exactly what type of direction the new baseball ops staff would be taking. No manager or coaching staff could’ve spun the ’24 Marlins into a contender, and other clubs will surely be cognizant of that as they show interest in a wave of newly available coaching talent.
Marlins Finalize Coaching Staff
The Marlins have finalized their coaching staff under rookie manager Skip Schumaker, the team announced Tuesday. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda and bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo are all holdovers from the prior staff. The rest will be comprised of newcomers — most of whom have Major League playing experience.
Rod Barajas has been named the team’s field coordinator, while Jon Jay is the new first base and outfield coach. Brant Brown has been tabbed as Miami’s new hitting coach, and he’ll be assisted by John Mabry. Jody Reed will serve as the Marlins’ third base and infield coach, and Luis Urueta will take over as Schumaker’s bench coach. Griffin Benedict, meanwhile, has been hired as a quality assurance coach.
Since retiring as a player following the 2012 season, the 47-year-old Barajas has spent nine years with the Padres in various coaching roles and was also the Angels’ Major League catching coordinator in 2022. The former catcher briefly served as the Padres’ interim manager for their final eight games in 2019 and was also San Diego’s bench coach. Barajas hit .235/.284/.407 and won a World Series ring with the D-backs during a 14-year playing career.
Jay, 37, was an active player up through the 2021 season and will now take his first big league coaching role. A longtime teammate of Schumaker in St. Louis, he’s a Miami native who spent a dozen seasons playing at the MLB level from 2010-21. Along the way, Jay hit .283/.348/.373 while logging extensive time at all three outfield positions.
Brown, 51, played in parts of five big league seasons and saw a brief run with the then-Florida Marlins in 2000. He’s spent the past three seasons as a co-hitting coach with the Dodgers and has previously held coaching gigs with the both the Mariners and Rangers. He batted .247/.301/.445 in 424 big league games.
Mabry, who’ll take over as the new assistant hitting coach for the Fish, is no stranger to big league coaching. He spent seven seasons with the Cardinals, first as assistant coach and then as the lead hitting coach, and he’s been on the Royals’ staff for each of the past three seasons. The 52-year-old played parts of 14 seasons in the Majors, hitting .263/.322/.405 and, in his final season with the Cardinals in 2005, briefly overlapped with Schumaker, who made his big league debut with St. Louis that same season.
The 60-year-old Reed had an 11-year playing career himself, batting .279/.340/.350 while spending the majority of his time with the Red Sox. He’s since had minor league coaching and development positions with the Dodgers and Yankees, including a nine-year stint with the latter.
Urueta is one of two newcomers who doesn’t have big league playing experience, though despite being just 41 years of age, he joins Miami with a lengthy coaching history. After spending more than a decade coaching and managing in the D-backs’ minor league system, Urueta was added to the big league staff in 2018 and eventually elevated to the position of bench coach. He returned to a minor league role for the 2022 season, however.
Benedict was with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in 2021-22, serving as the team’s hitting coach. Prior to that, he spent 10 seasons as a bullpen catcher and instructor with San Diego. Benedict played a pair of minor league seasons and also spent seven years working for the Padres’ scouting department.
ESPN’s Enrique Rojas first reported Urueta’s hiring back in November, while the hiring of Barajas and Reed were reported at the same time by Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald.
Marlins To Hire Luis Urueta As Bench Coach
The Marlins plan to hire Luis Urueta as their bench coach, as first reported by Enrique Rojas of ESPN (Twitter link). He’ll join the staff of first-year manager Skip Schumaker. It isn’t clear whether previous bench coach James Rowson will remain on the staff or in the organization.
Urueta, 41, has spent the past decade and a half in the Diamondbacks organization. After a lengthy run coaching and managing in the minors, he was bumped up to Torey Lovullo’s big league staff heading into 2018. He was promoted to bench coach in 2020, a year that also saw him attract some attention from the Red Sox during their managerial search. After two years as bench coach, he was reassigned to a minor league instructional role last offseason.
The Colombia native now gets back to the highest level, joining Schumaker’s first MLB coaching staff. That’s beginning to take shape. Miami retained Mel Stottlemyre Jr. as pitching coach and agreed to hire Jon Jay as first base coach this week. Meanwhile, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported yesterday (Twitter links) that former big leaguers Jody Reed and Rod Barajas are joining the staff. Reed will be the new third base coach, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (on Twitter), while Heyman adds that Barajas is taking on a quality assurance role.
Hitting coach is now the biggest remaining vacancy, as Marcus Thames departed to take the same position with the Angels this week. Heyman reports that Dave Hansen, a former MLB infielder and now a minor league hitting instructor in the Reds system, is under consideration.
Padres Finalize Coaching Staff
The Padres have promoted Damion Easley to hitting coach, the team announced. Additionally, Skip Schumaker will take over as the Padres’ associate manager and Rod Barajas will grab the reins as their catching and quality control coach.
Easley, a longtime major league infielder, served as the Padres’ assistant hitting coach/infield coach in 2019. It was the first season on a major league staff for the 50-year-old Easley.
Schumaker, an ex-major league utilityman, spent last season as the Padres’ first base coach. He then drew interest from the Mets as they sought a new manager this offseason, but they elected to hire Carlos Beltran instead. Now, with the Padres as another team with a rookie manager (Jayce Tingler), Schumaker has moved up in their pecking order to become an even more important assistant.
The Padres interviewed Barajas to take over as their next manager after they fired Andy Green, but he’s among several candidates who lost out to Tingler. Barajas, a former major league catcher, served in multiple roles for San Diego in 2019. He was the team’s bench coach before grabbing the reins as interim manager when it let go of Green toward the end of September.
NL Notes: Diamondbacks, Vogt, Padres, Mets
The Diamondbacks‘ behind-the-plate combination of Carson Kelly and Alex Avila‘s was one of the National League’s best in 2019, from an offensive standpoint. The two combined for 27 homers last year, with Kelly’s 108 wRC+ falling fourth among NL backstops. The club doubled down on an offense-first approach at catcher when it signed Stephen Vogt to a one-year, $3MM deal with a 2021 vesting option earlier this week, posits Zach Buchanan of The Athletic.
In acquiring Vogt, Buchanan argues that executive Mike Hazen essentially secured Avila-plus; both players are left-handed, veteran sluggers, but Vogt performed at a higher level in 2019 and swings at a higher launch angle than the 32-year-old Avila (a feature which figures to play well at Arizona’s Chase Field). With catcher defense front-and-center for many front offices, going bat-first at backstop certainly represents an against-the-grain strategy for Arizona’s front office.
More items from around the NL…
- It’s been an offseason of change in San Diego, with new manager Jayce Tingler taking the reins after a four-year stretch of losing seasons under Andy Green. We’ve also seen former Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild take over for longtime Padres fixture Darren Balsley, and a few of Manny Machado‘s old friends from Baltimore have been brought in to provide additional coaching help. Rothschild has now settled on Ben Fritz as the club’s new bullpen coach, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, although a new hitting coach has yet to be identified. Damian Easley, who has already been working with the club’s infielders, remains a possibility for that role. Acee also relays that Rod Barajas, who served as the club’s interim manager after Green’s mid-season exit, will be redirected to another role in the organization after being passed over for the role of skipper.
- Tim Britton of The Athletic tracks payroll trends surrounding the Mets over the last decade, with his analysis resting largely on info culled from Baseball Prospectus’ Cot’s On Contracts. Though perhaps unsurprising to most faithful followers of the team, Britton notes that New York has enacted the lowest percentage increase in total payroll among all teams in this decade. While total MLB revenue has risen nearly 50 percent in the last ten years, the Mets have not kept pace with other big-market spenders (New York was third in payroll over the course of the aughts, but spent the majority of this decade outside the top ten in payroll spending). Still, it’s important to emphasize that the Mets’ payroll is trending up of late, with GM Brodie Van Wagenen denying to speak unequivocally about a potential approach to the $208MM CBT line.
Latest On Padres’ Managerial Search
The Padres have made a fair bit of progress in their managerial search, though it remains unclear at this point which direction they’ll go. There’s now added clarity on the handful of serious candidates as well as the interviewing timeline.
It’s now clear that Braves third base coach and former Rangers skipper Ron Washington is a serious possibility. He interviewed today, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. It was already known that Brad Ausmus had interviewed as well.
But those aren’t the only candidate to get a sit-down interview. Indeed, Scott Miller of Bleacher Report tweets that quite a few others have already been in to meet with GM A.J. Preller and company.
Rod Barajas and Jayce Tingler were already known to be candidates. They have in fact held interviews, according to Miller. Unlike the two men mentioned already, Barajas and Tingler are each looking for their first opportunity to helm a big-league team.
It may be that the list doesn’t extend beyond those four names. Miller reports that long-time MLB managers Buck Showalter, Joe Girardi, and Mike Scioscia appear not to be part of the ongoing Padres search. Whether there are more candidates still under consideration beyond those isn’t yet clear.
Padres Notes: Barajas, Lauer, Garcia
Rod Barajas has been a big league manager for just about a week, but the former catcher is ready for a long-term gig, per Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union Tribune. Of course, taking over the final week of the season for his former boss was neither how Barajas expected nor wanted to get his first chance at the big chair. He’s not the likely favorite to take over Andy Green‘s former post full time either, though it seems he’ll get a chance to interview once this nine-game stint is through. With a young team nearing contention, the Padres fancy a calloused hand steering the ship in 2020, which presumes someone other than the would-be rookie skipper. At the same time, he’s popular among the players, and his ability to speak Spanish is a significant plus in San Diego. The connection he’s forged with catching prospect Francisco Mejia should also play in his favor. Barajas managed Mejia last season in Triple-A, and he’s continued as his advocate in 2019 during Mejia’s first significant extended look in the big leagues. A .267/.318/.439 line has Mejia looking again like a long-term possibility behind the dish and a nice feather in the cap of Barajas. Still, plenty of uncertainty looms in San Diego…
- What that uncertainty means for 2019’s Opening Day starter is a renewed fight for his rotation life. Eric Lauer has been a steady contributor this season, but nothing is guaranteed for the lefty moving forward, per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. Lauer is 14-17 with a 4.40 ERA/4.35 FIP over 52 starts the last two seasons, but with raised expectations entering 2020, the Padres aren’t contenting themselves with the kind of modest production they’ve received from Lauer. Dinelson Lamet looks like a rotation piece in his return from Tommy John (3.92 FIP, 12.9 K/9), and rookie stud Chris Paddack secured his spot for 2020, but it’s an open audition otherwise. Lauer will lock horns with Garrett Richards, Joey Lucchesi, Cal Quantrill, as well as top prospect MacKenzie Gore and whoever else the Padres add to the field before Spring Training.
- Infielder Greg Garcia knows the drill for teams coming off a losing season. The former waiver claim played Thursday’s game at Petco Park fully aware that he could be on the move again this offseason, per Acee, though it’s been a solid season for the native of nearby El Cajon, California. While providing capable defense at second, shortstop, and third, Garcia put forth a .248/.366/.356 line across 367 plate appearances. That level of on-base ability with the defensive versatility he provides makes Garcia an asset worth rostering, though for San Diego, that may depend on what kind of arbitration raise he would receive on his $910K salary. The 30-year-old could return in a similar role next year, though with Ian Kinsler on hand to back up the presumptive starting infield of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Luis Urias, it would be fair for Garcia to feel somewhat jittery about his future with the Friars.
The Rangers’ Managerial Search
After parting ways with Jeff Banister late in the season, the Rangers are working to decide who’ll lead their dugout in 2019. GM Jon Daniels and company originally looked at a broad slate of possibilities, including late-season interim skipper Don Wakamatsu, but have now opened the search up to additional potential candidates.
We’re tracking developments in the hiring process in this post. The latest:
Latest Updates
- Both Twins bench coach Derek Shelton and Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward have emerged as “strong” candidates in the Rangers’ managerial search, per Ken Rosenthal and Dan Hayes of The Athletic (Twitter link). Rosenthal notes that Woodward, who interviewed earlier today, was “extremely” impressive in his interview.
Click below to review the prior updates to the search and additional remaining candidates …
Padres Add Rod Barajas, Damion Easley To Coaching Staff
The Padres have seen bench coach Mark McGwire step down from his post and dismissed hitting coach Matt Stairs and infield coach Josh Johnson in recent weeks. They’re filling the gaps on the coaching staff from within, per a team announcement. Former big league catcher Rod Barajas, who has been serving as the Padres’ Triple-A manager for the past three seasons, will be the Friars’ new bench coach in 2019. San Diego is promoting assistant hitting coach Johnny Washington to hitting coach. Meanwhile, another former big leaguer, Damion Easley, is moving up from the team’s minor league ranks to serve as assistant hitting coach and infield coach.
Barajas, 43, spent parts of 14 seasons as a catcher in the big leagues, seeing action with the D-backs, Rangers, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Mets, Pirates and Phillies. A career .235/.284/.407 hitter in 3784 plate appearances, he’s managed at three levels in the minors and also served as a hitting coach. He’s been connected to Major League managerial openings in the past, most recently seeing his name floated as a potential candidate in the Rangers’ ongoing search. I’s not clear if he ever received an interview, but presumably, his appointment as the bench coach in San Diego indicates that he is not under serious consideration in Arlington either way.
The 34-year-old Washington is among the league’s youngest coaches and has somewhat remarkably already spent two seasons on the Padres’ big league staff. He won’t turn 35 until next May, but Washington has already been coaching professionally since the 2010 season and has steadily risen to more prominent roles in spite of his youth.
Now 48 years of age, Easley is likely a familiar name for many fans after playing 17 seasons in the Majors — from 1992 through 2008. An All-Star and Silver Slugger winner at second base in a career-year back in ’98, Easley spent seven seasons with the Tigers, five with the Angels, two apiece with the Mets and Marlins and individual seasons with the D-backs and Rays. He was a career .253/.329/.404 hitter in his 17 seasons and has been coaching in the Padres’ minor league ranks for the past seven years.
The rest of the Padres’ coaching staff will include returnees Darren Balsley (pitching coach), Doug Bochtler (bullpen), Glenn Hoffman (third base) and recently retired utilityman Skip Schumaker (first base).