The Rangers have agreed to an extension of GM and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to tweet. Details are not yet known.
A new contract for the club’s top baseball operations executive has long been expected, so the news is no surprise in that regard. Daniels is now in his 13th year in the position, which he took at just 28 years of age.
Over that tenure, Daniels has signed contracts of varying lengths, but never for more than four campaigns. His latest deal covered the 2016 through 2018 seasons, so it was set to expire at year end.
While the Rangers are experiencing some transition pains at the MLB level, Daniels has delivered strong overall results during his time in office. The club went to the postseason in five of seven seasons between 2010 and 2016 and has only carried a losing record in two of the past nine campaigns, though another will likely be added to that tally when 2018 draws to a close.
On the surface, it’s odd to see this agreement come while the Rangers are limping out to a 27-37 record. But there’s obviously a broader view being considered here. The club is scheduled to open a new ballpark (its second in less than three decades) for the start of the 2020 season, which surely represents a target date of sorts.
There’s certainly a formidable challenge ahead for Daniels, whose current roster is not exactly stuffed with core talent. Though the team has its share of well-regarded prospect talent, it isn’t considered a top farm system overall. Meanwhile, each of the other four teams in the AL West have generated some excitement and momentum to this point in the season.
Most immediately, there are some potentially sticky situations to be navigated involving veteran players. Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus could each become free agents — the latter has an opt-out chance — and thus may also be summer trade candidates. It’s fair to wonder whether the club may try to engineer some kind of move to shed a bit of the money owed to Shin-Soo Choo. Several relievers could be dealt. And then there’s the rotation, which includes three veterans who could be useful to contenders — Cole Hamels, Doug Fister, and Bartolo Colon — and otherwise presents as much or uncertainty as any other starting unit in baseball in both the near and long term.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
20th best farm system, per bleacher report. They can change that this summer, though…
Yes, teams go through phases. They were top 3 in baseball as recently as 2014.
However contenders tend to deplete the farm in order to make trade for impact players such as Cole Hamels & Jonathan Lucroy & Carlos Beltran. Just to name a few.
My point is, the farm isn’t the best right now because JD made reasonable moves in an effort to win a title. It didn’t work out unfortunately, but the effort was valiant.
I think they were good moves, too. I guess my point is that this trade deadline will be a crucial opportunity for the Rangers to speed up the rebuilding process.
Not if their GM decides to drain the “farm system” again to get quick fix established ML starters. That organization does not develop young stars like most organizations.
Most organization don’t develop stars.
Not sure I really get this. He hasn’t won a championship and has handed out some awful contracts (Odor, Choo).
I guess they trust him to rebuild the team again.
Don’t get me wrong, those contracts aren’t good, but as far as mistakes go there have been a lot worse made than Choo and Odor. Choo has at least been a pretty solid player for the Rangers and in the grand scheme of things Odor isn’t paid that terribly much, plus he could conceivably turn things around. They are bad, but won’t cripple a payroll for a decade like say a Pujols.
Pujols was such a draw at that time, he more than paid for his salary in ticket sales, etc.
Even moving past the awful contract he’s been a terrible talent evaluator within his own system.
He let Odubel Herrera go via Rule 5, traded Kyle Hendricks & Tanner Roark for scraps, etc. I feel like other teams wouldn’t let him hang around as long as he has without winning a championship.
Agreed.
and it wasn’t like Herrera was an uninspiring minor leaguer. The year before he was picked he hit .332/398/439 (good for the Texas League Batting champion and an 837 OPS- also he stole 29 bases and hit 8 home runs)
Choo was never really a stand out player. He never had an all star season before or during this contract. He’s just a really solid player. The rangers knew what they were getting into with that contract
I disagree. Choo has had plenty of all-star caliber seasons. Underrated if you ask me
Choo did not deserve that massive contract. I believe Kimball was trying to make that point.
The “Fire Jon Daniels Club” on Facebook has been designated for assignment.
Yep, Rangers gave that crowd the finger straight up.
I feel bad for Rangers fans. They’re stuck with this guy with nowhere to go but down.
I like this extension, the Rangers were very close to winning a championship in 2011 but they were defeated by my Cards. However, Mr. Daniels has put the best lineup to compete and to try to win a championship. This year the Rangers did not sign top starter pitchers like Jake Arrieta to try to win a championship. I believe that with Daniels as the General manager they will play at the highest level and can get back to a World Series in the upcoming seasons. Smart extension
As a Cardinal fan, I know you must have the Rangers’ best interests at heart. OBVIOUSLY NOT.
Honestly, I do not know what you are talking about only because the Cardinals are my favorite team that does not mean that I cannot like other teams. In the American League, the Rangers are my favorite team, so I also want the best for them. As a GM you can make good signings and other times there are signings that do not work for the team in the long run. Just take a look at the signing of Jacoby Ellsbury by Brian Cashman. Let me keep talking about the signing of Jayson Heyward by Theo Epstein, Heyward has provided good defense but he has not hit well. Another example is the signing of Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo it did not work for Red Sox. Sometimes, when players are signed, it sometimes does not work out. To me, Daniels has not been bad, the issue that the team has had is that they have had many injuries.
You just named teams that actually have WON the World Series in the last decade. You get some leeway when you the championship
After they trade off Hamels, Beltre, (Elvis?), Barnette, etc., they’ll restock that farm system and build around Mazara, Gallo, Guzman, Odor, and Profar.
God they need young pitching talent.
I don’t think they’d move Beltre unless he asks. He is too much of a draw for them. And the longer they keep him the more the chance he goes into HOF as a Ranger. There is already a case for that as it is.
There is no doubt Beltre is HoF for the Rangers. He stunk with the Mariners and the Dodgers are too far back on his resumé.
That is why they have front loaded for pitching in the last couple of drafts.
True, but then he decided to trade Tate for an old DH that was not needed a few years ago.
Agreed and in the 2015 draft at #4 passed on Benintendi for reach pick Tate.
Honestly I feel like they missed out on Seth Beer. He’s set to be a better Joey Gallo to me
I mean, seven other teams passed on Benintendi as well.
Nevertheless, I still to this day struggle to understand how Cashman finagled a package of three guys (including Tate, who was selected fourth overall just a year before) in exchange for a 39-year old DH with $5m remaining on his contract over the final two months.
Don’t get it. Daniels has made a bunch of lousy trades that have crippled the farm system, signed bad free agent deals, and the team he has put on the field this season is marginal at best.. The Choo contract alone should have been enough for most owners to say “goodbye.” If any other team really wanted to hire him, which I doubt, I would not have donned my sack cloth. .
Reason rangers farm system was good is because of Fuson not Daniels. Once Fuson was gone it has been mediocre at best. Now they are entering a few years of being last place rangers. Can he turn them around be the guy responsible? My bet is he will not last 3 years.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
The very thrifty owners of the Rangers “liked” Daniels, because he “penny pinches” like the Dickens villain “Uriah Heep” in the famous classic “David Copperfield.”
WOW!!!!! The Rangers will never get any better with Daniels it’s a proven fact. Might as well get use to loosing for a very long time.
RIP Arlington
JD is one of the longest tenured GM’s in the league. He had overseen by far the most successful decade of Rangers baseball in the history of the franchise. Any GM with 13 years on the job is going to have some bad trades, contracts, draft picks throughout that time, but he has proven that he is good at his job and can build a consistent winner. Every franchise goes through down cycles.He has earned the right to try and get them back to contention moving into the new stadium in 2020.
Since this bum had Nolan Ryan ousted the team has been spiraling downhill ever since. JD has spent more money on international pool money and therefore can’t sign players cause he is not even close to the dollar figure the players want. Most of the high school players he drafted I am sure are committed to a university and will not sign with Texas. I say throw JD to the curb.
We actually had the most international pool money to sign Othani this offseason and we have one of the strongest track records of any team signing our top 10 picks in the draft.. you sound ignorant…
If you call division championships and trips to the playoffs downhill sure. Those high school guys are committed to schools until they see the cash then it changes real quick.. JD has built us winners before and gotten us closer to a ring than anyone else I think eventually it’ll pan out. I’ve had sour taste from trades we’ve made but I’m sure you can name a not so good trade from any of the other 29 teams in recent history.
guess its time to route for some one else never going to have a good team with him
You are Wright all he get is hand me down pitching or from Japan next he’ll go to China
In the last decade the Rangers have the 5th best winning %. Dispute that