The Rangers announced earlier in the week that Bruce Bochy would not return as manager in 2026 after his three-year contract drew to a close at the end of the current season. That’s created ample speculation about who’ll step into his shoes. President of baseball operations Chris Young perhaps tipped his hand at today’s end-of-season press conference when he revealed that the club hasn’t yet spoken to external candidates (link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). Grant adds that former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, whom the Rangers hired as a senior advisor to the baseball operations department last offseason, is the current “focus” in the Rangers’ search for a new manager.
Schumaker, 45, had an 11-year playing career from 2005-15. Following his retirement as a player, he quickly jumped into the coaching ranks, hooking on a first base coach with the Padres. He eventually moved up to the position of associate manager in San Diego before being hired as the bench coach in St. Louis, where he’d spent the bulk of his playing career. After one season as Oli Marmol’s bench coach with the Cardinals, Schumaker was hired away as the new manager of the Marlins heading into 2023.
Schumaker’s Marlins surprisingly went 84-78 in ’23, narrowly sneaking into the playoffs as a Wild Card club. They were dispatched in short order by the division-rival Phillies, who swept the Wild Card series 2-0, but it looked like a nice step forward for the Fish all the same. Schumaker took home National League Manager of the Year honors for that performance.
The Marlins took a step back in 2024, however, as a newly installed front office opted not to add to the big league roster. Quite to the contrary, Miami wound up trading Luis Arraez to the Padres — in a package including 2025 breakout outfielder Jakob Marsee — in early May. By the time the trade deadline rolled around, the Marlins had shipped out a dozen players in a full dismantling of the team. Prior to the season, Schumaker and the Marlins had agreed to void his 2025 club option — a move reportedly borne out of some frustration from Schumaker over the ouster of general manager Kim Ng, who’d hired him a year prior. By season’s end, Schumaker’s looming departure was one of the worst-kept secrets in baseball. Miami hired Dodgers coach Clayton McCullough to take over the dugout, while Schumaker latched onto a new role in Texas.
Schumaker has now spent the past year familiarizing himself with the organization and building a rapport with Young, general manager Ross Fenstermaker and the remainder of the team’s operation. That experience would seemingly give him a leg up over external candidates if the Rangers went that route, but the fact that they’ve opted not to do so sends strong signals that Schumaker was already considered Bochy’s heir apparent.
If the Rangers ultimately choose to hand the dugout reins over to Schumaker, the 2026 season will be his third as a big league manager. He went 146-178 during his two seasons with Miami, although the Miami front office didn’t really set him up for much success in terms of wins and losses in that 2024 season.
I wish the Braves would make an offer he couldn’t refuse… I don’t love internal options, and David Ross is who I’d guess we’d go after outside the organization and neither of those excite me. I’d ultimately be happy with Ross but Skip is a good managers.
How about Sale for Cora?
I think the Braves’ opportunity is regarded as the best, in terms of readiness to win. Knowing the Rangers org is a +, but is it enough to pass on managing a franchise ready to win and in a good place to play and manage?
Ross is decent, but he definitely benefited from Theo when it came to that WS title. You’d have thought they’d have kept him forever for breaking the curse. So why didn’t they?
?
The Rangers managerial opening is the best chance to win and win now!! What are you talking about? The Rangers won it all just 2 short years ago in ‘23
My question mark was aimed at vacommish who thought Ross was manager when the Cubs won the Series and actually got an upvote
This would be the smart move, and the move everyone saw coming when they hired him.
Yeah, this feels right.
How about Michael Young? Bring him back to Arlington or possibly Beltre.
Skip has proven to run a clubhouse and by all accounts this club is much closer to functioning on a daily basis than not. Beltre might be great in Chicago or Miami I guess. Texas is a feel good story but that’s not the experience level this team needs right now. You can guarantee the next hire at least won’t be a firat time manager.
Fire Shildt, hire Ollie, pass on skip twice for Ollie. Go cards
You left out hung on to Ollie and missed Yadi.
Shildt did a generally mediocre/acceptable job with St. Louis and has done a generally mediocre/acceptable job with San Diego. Never had a team win 95 games, never had a team win a game in an LCS let alone the series or World Series. Relative to the talent level and payrolls in San Diego his teams have been especially disappointing.
The pining for him by some Cardinals fans is super weird
Everything is relative. Your comment doesn’t take into account that the padres play in the Nl west. Four of the five teams are in the top half of the league in spending and, historically, two of the teams average spending more than the padres each year.
The NL central has four of five teams in the bottom half of spending.
Making it relative, it would see that he is pretty consistent or above average at what he doesn with what he’s given and has to go against.
The Padres were 9th in payroll in 2025, won 90 games and a single postseason game. I mean, I know it beats the Joyce Tingler era but if you’re a Pads fan, you should expect the level of talent on your team to actually get you to an NLCS/World Series.
But wow go Shildty
Had to laugh…. terrible unjust firing of Mike Shildt. Unwarranted and bad hiring of Marmol. Extension of Marmol by Mozeliak… even dumber. Passing on Skip, huge mistake. Now, Bloom is keeping Marmol, for now,
Skip is a fantastic manager. He did well during his time in Miami
Pass! Too confusing of a name. How does he react when someone says, “Hey, Skip!” Are they calling his name, or are they addressing him as manager? What if he turns out to be a bad Skip? He could become confused. Does he fail because he is a bad Skip, or a bad Skip?
So you’re saying they should pass on Skip?
If Skip joins the Rangers, I have a feeling the AL West next season would be the battle of the managers, between Dan Wilson and Skip.
Hire Skip now!
Skip will do a good job as manager of the Rangers. I had hoped that the Cardinals would have chosen him earlier. He is liked by the players and knows the game as well as anyone.
I give two thumbs up if the Rangers would hire Schumaker, thought he got a raw deal with the Marlins.
It’s not a raw deal when you voluntarily void your option. It’s a choice
Writing was on the wall that he’d eventual supplant Bochy.