The Rays announced to reporters, including Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, that they have hired Jon Daniels as senior advisor for baseball operations. Daniels had spent many years with the Rangers until he was recently fired as president of baseball operations.
Daniels, 45, spent 17 years running the baseball operations in Texas, getting hired as general manager in 2005 and promoted to the POBO role in 2013. The Rangers had their best run of success with Daniels at the helm, as they made the playoffs in five out of seven seasons from 2010 to 2016, including trips to the World Series in the first two of those years. Since that time, however, the club has entered a rebuilding period that has continued to linger. They fell to 78-84 in 2017 and just endured their sixth straight losing season in 2022, with Daniels getting fired in August.
Despite the poor results in recent seasons, the Rays will bring Daniels into their front office mix. Said front office is headed by Erik Neander, president of baseball operations, followed by Peter Bendix, senior vice president baseball operations and general manager. The exact level of involvement they expect from Daniels is unclear, though Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relays that Daniels will focus on “supporting baseball ops senior leadership while utilizing his extensive experience in the industry to help further inform decision-making.”
In addition to the hiring of Daniels, the Rays also announced several promotions and/or title changes, with Topkin giving a rundown on Twitter (link one, two and three).
So where does this position rank on the totem pole? How many bosses does this man have?
Good question. Two for sure (the POBO and the owner). And I would guess the GM ranks higher too. It’s kind of like how many licks does it take to reach the center of a tootsie pop?
“Advisor”? Maybe a consultant, not employee?
I wouldn’t hire him to run a self serve car wash.
Expect to spend no $ with this team, but they seem to always find a way to win anyway.
I wouldn’t hire him to be my local dog catcher
Astros dodged a bullet.
This seems un-Rays like
It’s a head scratcher.
Adding someone who has been in upper management for that long and being able to pick their brain is a very rays like move. They now know everything Texas knows about every team in the mlb.
And if he did it well he’d still be in Texas. But he’s not. And apparently he didn’t know enough because they still stink.
I never said he was a good president. That doesn’t mean he isn’t good at or doesn’t know anything.
Uh, what over the course of the last decade leads you to believe that Texas knows anything about other MLB teams?
Every team knows something. Even if it’s just their own prospects.
I can definitively say that given Texas’ failure rate of drafting and developing over his tenure, there is no usable knowledge of their own prospects.
Oooffff good luck with that one. Daniels had been clueless at running the Rangers ever since their failed World Series trips. Surprised he held onto his job as long as he did.
It’s a good thing they didn’t hire him to run the organization then.
Senior advisor sounds like a sounding board of sorts. Just there to throw out ideas and recommendations but has no real say in any final decision.
Can be much more than that but definitely not making final decisions.
Surprising by the Rays. Normally they make good moves. Time to start a never ending rebuild in Tampa.
This is a good move and Tampa has no plans to rebuild. They reload and try to contend every year. They don’t have enough expiring contracts to go into a rebuild.
When have the Rays done a rebuild? that’s not their model.
That could be a problem because the Rays don’t play in Tampa.
Judging by attendance, only about 150 people actually know where the Rays play.
Fewer then that, silly.
Bad day for the nerd teams (including the one I root for).
Ugh.
I used to think the Rays had good sense. Don’t let him anywhere near the budget.
Maybe it’s a ” What would you do Jon” thing. Then do the opposite.
The Costanza effect
What budget? They can’t go much cheaper and ownership isn’t going over 100 million. He isn’t running the team anyways.
A lotta people on here seem butt hurt they didn’t get hired for the position.
Smart organization makes smart hire.
Nothing else to see here.
My take on this, for what it’s worth is, that once the “Nolan Ryan Effect” wore off for Texas, they were never truly competitive and gradually “slid” from where they started. True, JD has lots of experience, but not much success. I don’t see this as a productive hire for the Rays.
Starting to think preller was making this dude look good. Say what you want about preller he is good at building a farm.
Give even a decent gm 80 million to spend on international prospects and 4 straight top 10 picks and they will build you a farm.
Well there is some truth to that. I dont think anyone thinks he isn’t really good at drafting good players even in years where they don’t have a top 10 pick. Example Jackson Merrill who was drafted 27th. Some reports are expecting him to be a top 5 prospect in baseball soon. I think you will see some of the pitchers he drafted last year start shooting up the rankings once they are healthy. They are also about to sign the number 1 international prospect. Some teams like the dodgers can find great prospects without having a top 10 pick.
He is solid at identifying talent. Really nice guy. He helped build the Guardians and Mariners along with his own team.
Brilliant hire
It was his brilliance that has led the Rangers to 11 years without a playoff series win. Also his deft maneuvering on a 6 year rebuild that still had Koji Arihara, Tyson miller and post mortem Dallas Keuchel starting games. 17 years with Texas and more losing seasons than winning seasons. The only brilliant thing about this baseball illiterate is that he managed to fail his way through 17 years and still has a baseball paycheck.
So I wonder what all the JD bashers have to say about the best front office in all of baseball wanting to add him to their staff…..
etex211;
Not sure they’re the best anymore…..
Orioles and Guardians may have passed them.
@Samuel
The orioles FO looks great and if you understand what is being built you see that but you’re jumping the gun.
Have to give the respect to what the Rays have done for over a decade. We’ll see if the O’s pass them LT
They are doubling down.
And suddenly he becomes a genius again!!
does he have any experience getting teams a new stadium? That might be helpful to the Rays moving forward. Otherwise, sounds like another one of the Rays special advisors, whom seem to be a little like GMs and are often in the running for GM jobs at other organizations (e.g. Bobby Heck).
Daniels was once the youngest GM in baseball and a good one.
There’s a place for him in an organization. Maybe just not the guy calling alll the shots.
The Rays hired him to pick his baseball brain. I hope the Rays are paying him by the hour – as that task will not take too long.
How does this guy still have a job?