David Robertson Declines Mutual Option With Rangers
Veteran right-hander David Robertson is declining his side of the mutual option he holds with the Rangers, as noted by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Robertson forgoes a $7MM salary in 2025 in favor of a $1.5MM buyout and the ability to test free agency.
Robertson, 39, returns to the open market on the heels of another solid season. He served as the top set-up man for closer Kirby Yates in Texas this season, pitching to a strong 3.00 ERA with 2.65 FIP in 72 innings of work. While the veteran will pitch next year at age 40, he’s shown no signs of slowing down with a 33.4% strikeout rate this year that was his best since 2017. While his 9.1% walk rate was somewhat elevated, it’s a couple of ticks below his 2023 mark and well below the mark he posted in 2022, the campaign that helped to revive his career after three mostly lost seasons due to injuries.
That dominance likely made the decision to head to the open market a fairly easy decision for the veteran as it’s hard to imagine him not beating the $5.5MM he left on the table this winter. While he’s likely to be limited to one-year guarantees due to his age, Robertson’s long track record of success in his nearly two decades as a big leaguer, his ample closing experience, and his ability to strike batters out at elite levels should all earn him a lucrative one-year deal in free agency this winter with a club in need of bullpen help. Virtually every team in the league tends to look for bullpen upgrades over the winter, and the short-term guarantee Robertson figures to command should make him of interest to contenders and rebuilding clubs alike, as even a deadline seller could shop Robertson next summer. That’s a situation Robertson is quite familiar with, as he found himself dealt at the trade deadline in both 2022 and ’23 when the Cubs and Mets shipped him off to the Phillies and Marlins, respectively.
For the Rangers, the departure of Robertson highlights the club’s own needs in the bullpen this winter as he joined Yates and Leclerc in heading to free agency. It’s not hard to imagine the club reuniting with one or more of those players at some point this winter, but with the club expected to try and duck under the luxury tax this winter it’s also possible Chris Young‘s front office will instead look for cheaper ways to augment their relief mix such as their recent move to claim Roansy Contreras off waivers from the Angels. Robertson, Leclerc, and Yates combined to make more than $20MM in 2024, after all, and clearing that money off the books while adding relievers on lower-cost deals could go a long way towards helping the Rangers avoid the rising penalties associated with spending into tax territory multiple times in a row. They’ll sure need some established help in the bullpen, however, as the club’s bullpen finished bottom-five in the majors overall this year even in spite of standout performances from Robertson and Yates.
Rangers To Hire Justin Viele As Hitting Coach
The Rangers plan to hire Giants co-hitting coach Justin Viele as their new hitting coach, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic first reported that Viele “appeared headed” to the Rangers even though he had a year remaining on his contract and had been invited back for the 2025 season.
Viele, 34 later this month, will step in for veteran hitting coach Tim Hyers, who was recently hired away by the Braves. He’s been on the Giants’ coaching staff since the 2020 season and spent several years as a college coach and a minor league coach with the Orioles and Dodgers organizations prior to his time in San Francisco. Viele and Rangers bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Eckers were both on the Giants’ coaching staff in 2020-21. A former infielder at Santa Clara University, Viele had a brief two-year minor league career after being drafted by the Orioles back in 2013.
There will be other changes coming to the coaching staffs both in Texas and San Francisco. The Rangers recently bid farewell to associate manager Will Venable, who was hired by the White Sox as their new skipper just yesterday. They’ll need to replace him.
Meanwhile, Baggarly added that Giants assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero has interviewed for a position with the Marlins, who recently gutted their entire staff. There’s no indication yet that he’ll be hired, but he’s not yet been eliminated from consideration, either. The Giants enlisted three hitting coaches this past season: Viele, Guerrero and former big league slugger Pat Burrell. With Viele departing and Guerrero potentially following, it stands to reason that San Francisco will look to bring in at least one new hitting coach to help shoulder the workload.
Rangers Claim Roansy Contreras
The Rangers have claimed right-hander Roansy Contreras off outright waivers from the Angels, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The Halos added Contreras, once one of the game’s top pitching prospects, in a cash deal with the Pirates back in May. He’s controllable for another four seasons but is out of minor league options.
Now 24 years old (25 next week), Contreras was the headline prospect the Pirates received in the trade sending Jameson Taillon to the Yankees. At the time of the swap, Contreras was widely regarded among the sport’s 100 best prospects. He showed why with a very solid 2022 season, logging 95 innings of 3.79 ERA ball for the Pirates. His 21.1% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate were both worse than average, but not by a wide measure, and Contreras averaged nearly 96 mph on his heater and was only in his age-22 season at the time. It looked like he was well on his way to locking down a long-term spot in the Pittsburgh rotation.
The 2023 season told a very different story. Contreras was rocked for a 5.91 ERA across his first 11 starts. He lost 1.5 mph off his average fastball and saw his strikeout, walk, home run and ground-ball rates all trend dramatically in the wrong direction. A move to the bullpen didn’t pay dividends. Contreras was shelled for five runs in one-third of an inning in his first relief appearance following his final start of the season. He ultimately yielded 13 runs in 12 big league innings after losing his rotation spot.
Contreras’ 2024 season landed somewhere between his two prior campaigns. He posted a serviceable if unspectacular 4.35 ERA between the Pirates and Angels. His strikeout and walk rates remained worse than average, but he added a two-seamer to his repertoire and bolstered his grounder rate to 44.4% as a result. He still surrendered too much hard contact but did see his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate tick downward a bit from their 2023 levels (particularly following the trade to the Angels).
While Contreras is no lock to make it through the offseason on the Rangers’ 40-man roster — this type of former prospect is often bandied about the league via waivers as clubs spend the offseason months attempting to sneak him through in order to bolster their non-roster depth — he’ll give Texas a back-end rotation option or bullpen option if he indeed stays on the roster until next spring. Pitching injuries and shaky depth proved to be hurdles for the 2024 Rangers as they missed the postseason on the heels of their 2023 World Series win. Adding Contreras (and presumably others in this same mold as the winter wears on) is a first step toward cultivating some additional depth for the 2025 club.
White Sox Hire Will Venable As Manager
Oct 31: The White Sox officially announced Venable’s hiring this morning, noting that he has agreed to a multiyear contract with the club. As noted by Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times, Getz praised his new skipper in a statement alongside the announcement:
“Will is widely recognized as one of the premium managerial candidates within the game, and we are very excited to bring him into our organization as our new manager. He is so well thought of across baseball. Will has built a well-earned and well-deserved reputation as a successful player, front office executive, coach and associate manager. A great communicator, Will is going to build strong relationships, set expectations, build a clubhouse where we hold one another accountable, and ultimately, create a winning mindset among our players and a winning environment in our clubhouse.”
Venable also made a statement as part of the team’s press release:
“This is a great opportunity with a White Sox organization that is putting a lot of good things into place and laying a solid foundation for the future. It’s exciting to be part of that process to help get back to the type of baseball White Sox fans are used to seeing. We want players who show up to work hard every day, but also smart baseball players who understand the nuances of the game. There is a rich tradition here and a fan base that deserves winning baseball, and I am excited to do whatever I can to help.”
Oct 29: The White Sox have reached an agreement to hire Will Venable as manager, reports Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Venable has spent the last two seasons on Bruce Bochy’s staff as the associate manager of the Rangers. Major League Baseball discourages teams from revealing news on days with a playoff game, so the Sox are unlikely to make the hiring official until Thursday.
In any case, it’s a nice birthday present. Venable, who turned 42 on Tuesday, gets his first big league managerial opportunity. That has seemed like an inevitability. Venable has been regarded as a future manager for years. He’s a Princeton graduate who played in parts of nine major league seasons. The majority of his playing experience came in San Diego, where he was a well-rounded outfielder.
Venable finished his playing days in 2017. It didn’t take long for him to move into the next phase of his career. He joined the Cubs’ front office late in the ’17 campaign. Venable moved into coaching the following year, joining Joe Maddon’s staff as first base coach. Teams were considering him for managerial vacancies within a couple seasons. Venable interviewed for the Cubs job after Maddon departed the organization, while he also sat down with the Giants and Astros.
Chicago ultimately tabbed David Ross. Venable stayed on Ross’ staff for the 2020 season and again found himself in managerial searches. He interviewed with the Tigers and Red Sox, and while neither team hired as manager, Boston added him as bench coach not long after rehiring Alex Cora.
Venable spent two seasons in Boston. While the Red Sox hoped to bring him back for 2023, he departed to take on the associate manager role in Arlington. It proved to be a wise choice, as Venable collected a World Series ring during his first year. He pulled himself out of consideration for managerial openings last offseason, formally declining an interview with the Mets and bypassing a chance to pursue the Guardians opening.
Between his standing as the #2 coach in Texas and his decision not to proceed through the interview process last winter, Venable seemed like the manager-in-waiting in Arlington. Bochy will be back for at least a third season and hasn’t publicly tipped his hand on retirement plans. It’s not clear whether the circumstances in Texas have changed. Venable may simply have felt that he needed another year of experience and is now ready to lead a dugout.
Whatever the reason, he viewed this winter as the right time to look for a managerial opportunity. There have only been three vacancies thus far. The Reds quickly brought Terry Francona out of retirement. That left the White Sox and Marlins. Venable not only interviewed for both positions but emerged as a finalist in each search. The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday that he and Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz were finalists for the Marlins position. There hasn’t been any word out of Miami since Venable took the Sox job, but one can infer that Albernaz is likely to land in South Florida.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on Tuesday that Venable, Albernaz and Phil Nevin were the finalists in Chicago. The Sox are also known to have interviewed Texas bench coach Donnie Ecker. Grady Sizemore, who took over as interim manager when the White Sox fired Pedro Grifol in August, also received consideration. Skip Schumaker, A.J. Ellis, Daniel Descalso, Clayton McCullough and George Lombard were among the other reported candidates.
In August, GM Chris Getz indicated the White Sox were looking outside the organization. While Sizemore was in the mix, they’ll indeed go with an external hire. Venable will have his work cut out for him with the White Sox coming off the worst season in modern baseball history. He joins the franchise at a time when owner Jerry Reinsdorf has floated the possibility of a sale. It’s an organization in flux.
It’s a much different situation than Venable would’ve assumed had he pursued and landed a job with the Mets or Cleveland a year ago. Those clubs certainly would’ve provided a clearer path to contention than he’ll find with the White Sox. Venable is familiar with the city after spending three seasons across town, though, and the rebuild should give him time to learn on the job as he works with a roster that won’t be expected to contend in the near future.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
MLBTR Podcast: The Mets’ Spending Power, Juan Soto Suitors, And The Rangers’ Payroll Limits
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns recently addressed the club’s financial situation (2:00)
- Does the spending capacity of the Mets make them favorites for Juan Soto? (16:00)
- The Rangers are reportedly hoping to duck beneath the competitive balance tax in 2025 (23:00)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Which impending free agent has earned the biggest pay raise by his performance in the current postseason? (30:30)
- Could the Cardinals get Ryan Mountcastle from the Orioles in a deal for Ryan Helsley to fill the void at first? (36:40)
- Could Rowdy Tellez be a fit for the Tigers? (38:50)
- Should Justin Verlander switch into a closer’s role? (41:10)
- Details on what’s coming up soon at MLBTR, including the Top 50 Free Agents, top trade candidates and a megapod (43:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- The World Series, The White Sox Reportedly For Sale, And Tropicana Field – listen here
- Changes In Minnesota, Cubs’ Prospect Depth, And Possibilities For The O’s – listen here
- Previewing FA Starting Pitchers, TV Deals, And Potential Spending Teams – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
White Sox Managerial Search Reportedly Down To Three Finalists
The White Sox are on the hunt for a new manager and might be getting closer to a decision. Per Bob Nightengale of USA Today on X, the three finalists for the job are Rangers associate manager Will Venable, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and former Angels manager Phil Nevin.
As noted by Nightengale, this could make for an interesting standoff. The Sox are one of two clubs on the hunt for a new manager, with the other being the Marlins. It was reported yesterday by Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald that Venable and Albernaz are the two finalists for the Marlins gig, so there’s plenty of overlap in the two searches.
Nevin, 53, appears to be the one name on the radar of the Sox but not the Marlins. Jon Heyman of The New York Post listed him as a candidate a few weeks ago and it seems Nevin is still in the running. He’s also the only one in the group with previous managerial experience. He was working as the Angels third base coach in 2022 when manager Joe Maddon was fired. The club gave Nevin the gig on an interim basis and eventually re-signed him for the 2023 campaign but didn’t extend his contract after that.
The club went 119-149 during his time there, but that might not say much about his abilities as a skipper. The club also posted poor results before he had the job and after he left, meaning the poor record is likely more a reflection of roster construction as opposed to a lack of dugout leadership.
After parting ways with the Angels, Nevin interviewed for the managerial vacancy in San Diego but that job went to Mike Shildt and Nevin didn’t land a gig elsewhere for the 2024 season. Prior to joining the Angels, he spent about a decade in the majors as a player before pivoting into coaching. He worked in indy ball and then in the minors with the Tigers and Diamondbacks. He then had major league coaching jobs with the Giants and Yankees before landing with the Angels.
Venable is also a former player with plenty of coaching experience. He was a base coach with the Cubs for the 2018-2020 seasons before becoming the bench coach with the Red Sox. He’s spent the past two years as associate manager for the Rangers under skipper Bruce Bochy.
He was listed as a candidate for managerial gigs last winter with the Guardians and Mets but reportedly declined to be interviewed as he was happy with the Rangers. Now it appears that he’s giving more consideration to a change. Heyman reported yesterday that Venable was in Miami to interview for that gig and a move to the South Side of Chicago seems to be feasible as well.
Albernaz never cracked the majors as a player, spending almost a decade in the minors from 2006 through 2014. After that, he started his coaching career in the minor league system of the Rays. Prior to the 2020 season, he was added to the major league staff of the Giants as bullpen and catching coach. A year ago, the Guardians hired him to be their bench coach, working under new manager Stephen Vogt.
It’s been speculated by some that Albernaz is the favorite for the Miami job, given his history with Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix. When Albernaz was coaching for the Rays in the minors, Bendix was working for that club, eventually becoming general manager in December of 2021.
Pedro Grifol was fired as White Sox manager during the most recent season and replaced by Grady Sizemore on an interim basis. Sizemore had been identified as a candidate to take the job more permanently but Nightengale’s report suggests he’s behind this trio of Venable, Albernaz and Nevin.
Plenty of other names have been connected to the job but many have reportedly been eliminated from the running, including former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso, Tigers bench coach George Lombard, Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker, Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis.
Teams are generally discouraged from announcing big news on days when a playoff game is taking place. Even if the White Sox make a final decision soon, it may not be publicly reported until the World Series is done or gets to Thursday’s off-day.
Will Venable, Craig Albernaz Reportedly Finalists For Marlins Manager
Rangers associate manager Will Venable and Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz are finalists for the Marlins’ managerial vacancy, report Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. It seems the search will come down to one of those two. Mish notes in a separate post (on X) that he’s “not aware” of other finalists, though he leaves the door slightly open for the possibility of a mystery candidate emerging.
If it is indeed down to Venable and Albernaz, they’ll settle on Skip Schumaker’s replacement shortly. (An announcement may not come in the next few days, as MLB discourages teams from releasing significant news on days with a postseason game.) The Herald reports that both Albernaz and Venable are flying to Miami for in-person meetings with owner Bruce Sherman after conducting Zoom interviews for the first round. Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweets that Venable’s latest interview is occurring today.
Venable and Albernaz have been two of the hottest names in this year’s managerial cycle. They’ve both gotten consideration from the White Sox in their search. Venable has interviewed for the Chicago position. It’s not clear if Albernaz has had a formal sit-down with Sox brass or is simply on their list of potential hires.
Neither has major league managerial experience. Venable might have gotten an MLB job by now if he hadn’t taken himself out of consideration in previous offseasons. The former outfielder has a fair amount of experience as the #2 on a coaching staff. He spent two seasons as Alex Cora’s bench coach in Boston and has logged the last two years as an associate manager under Bruce Bochy in Arlington. The 42-year-old, a Princeton product, also logged three years on the Cubs’ staff after ending his playing career in 2016.
Albernaz, 41, did not reach the big leagues as a player. He has less experience than Venable in the coaching ranks as well. He joined the Giants as bullpen and catching coach during the 2019-20 offseason. After four seasons in San Francisco, he made the jump to bench coach for first-year skipper Stephen Vogt in Cleveland.
While Albernaz only has one year in a bench coach role, he’s a known commodity for Miami baseball operations president Peter Bendix and assistant GM Gabe Kapler. Albernaz was a minor league player and coach in the Rays’ organization while Bendix was Tampa Bay’s general manager. His four years with the Giants coincided with Kapler’s managerial tenure.
In other staffing news, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports (on X) that Miami has hired Joe Migliaccio as director of hitting. Migliaccio, who had been with the Yankees as a hitting coordinator, will work in the player development department and oversee the team’s offensive performance at multiple levels. He is not going to be the MLB hitting coach. That role has yet to be filled and will probably wait until the managerial decision. Miami parted ways with Schumaker’s entire staff, including hitting coach John Mabry.
Rangers Aiming To Drop Beneath Luxury Tax Threshold In 2025
The Rangers spent lavishly in free agency following the opening of their new stadium, inking Corey Seager (10 years, $325MM), Marcus Semien (seven years, $175MM), Jacob deGrom (five years, $185MM) to mega contracts. They also took on notable salary in trades (Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery) and doled out more modest but nevertheless notable guarantees for Jon Gray (four years, $56MM), Nathan Eovaldi (two years, $34MM) and Andrew Heaney (two years, $28MM), among others. Generally speaking, they were rewarded. Texas won the 2023 World Series — the first in franchise history.
The sheer magnitude of those expenditures added up, however, resulting in the Rangers paying the luxury tax both in 2023 and 2024. Texas has spent aggressively at times in the past, but not to this extent. As they face the potential of a third straight season as a luxury tax payor, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that one of owner Ray Davis’ top priorities this winter — perhaps even his No. 1 priority — is to duck under the $241MM luxury threshold in order to reset the team’s penalty level.
For those unfamiliar or simply in need of a refresher, the luxury tax is calculated based on the combined average annual salaries of the players on a team’s roster (plus player benefits and a mandatory payment into the league’s pre-arbitration bonus pool). The tax threshold climbs every season — at predetermined levels stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement — and carries escalating penalties for teams that cross the tax barrier in consecutive seasons.
First-time offenders pay a 20% tax on the first $20MM by which they exceed the threshold. They’re then taxed at a 32% rate for the next $20MM. If they cross into the third tier of penalty, that results in a 62.5% tax on the next $20MM and sees the team’s top pick in the following year’s draft dropped by 10 spots. Exceeding the tax threshold by more than $60MM results in being taxed at 80% or any dollars spent thereafter.
That’s just for first-time offenders, however. Each of those penalty levels increases by at least 10% for a team that crosses the tax line in a second season. For a club crossing the tax threshold in a third straight year, the penalties become more burdensome: 50% for the first $20MM, 62% for the next $20MM, 95% for the next $20MM (plus the same draft pick penalty) and 110% for any dollars thereafter. That’s the set of potential penalties the Rangers would be facing if they cross the tax line again in 2025.
To this point, the Rangers’ penalties they’ve paid have been light, relatively speaking. They paid just $1.8MM for their first year of penalty in 2023. This year’s total has not yet been determined, but RosterResource estimates they were a bit more than $13MM north of 2024’s first-tier threshold of $237MM. At a 30% tax hit as a second-time payor, they’d be looking at roughly $4MM in penalties based on that number.
In theory, the 50% tax isn’t all that daunting, so long as the club only modestly exceeds the threshold once again. But the Rangers have quite a bit of work to do this winter, with as many as 10 players reaching free agency — pending option decisions on Nathan Eovaldi ($20MM player option), David Robertson ($7MM mutual option) and Andrew Chafin ($6.5MM club option). Eovaldi is all but certain to decline his option, as he can command something close to (perhaps even above) that same salary on a multi-year deal. Robertson will turn down his end of that mutual option after a strong season. Chafin’s is a borderline call, but if Texas wants to be conscious about its spending levels, that will probably be bought out for $500K.
At present, RosterResource projects nearly $189MM of luxury commitments already in place for the 2025 season — $52MM shy of next year’s $241MM threshold. That ostensibly leaves a fair bit of wiggle room — at least until considering the fact that the Rangers are losing three starters (Eovaldi, Scherzer, Heaney), their three top relievers (Robertson, Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc) and several role players. They’ll not only need to remake a significant portion of the pitching staff but also look for ways to augment an offense that was among the game’s best in ’23 before growing stagnant in ’24.
Young has already called re-signing Eovaldi and/or Heaney “a priority” this offseason. Eovaldi, in particular, would eat up a significant portion of the funds available to the club this offseason. In a separate mailbag column, Grant suggests that if another team were interested in taking on the remaining year and $13MM of Jon Gray’s contract, the Rangers would pursue such an opportunity and could conceivably reallocate some of those funds to a reunion with Eovaldi.
Gray has performed reasonably well since signing in Texas but has been injured each season and watched his strikeout rate drop in consecutive years. The 32-year-old righty (33 next month) made only 19 starts this season and pitched to a serviceable 4.47 ERA with a 19.6% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 40.1% ground-ball rate. In three seasons with Texas, the hard-throwing former No. 3 overall pick carries a 4.16 ERA in 387 1/3 innings. His contract is hardly an albatross, but there also isn’t much (if any) surplus value on the deal.
Speculatively speaking, the Rangers could look to free up money in other ways if they feel crunched. Righty Dane Dunning‘s projected $4.4MM salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) makes him a potential non-tender or trade candidate after a rough season. Leody Taveras ($4.3MM projection) also had a tough year and could be moved with younger outfielders Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter both in the majors now (and hopefully healthier in 2025). Nathaniel Lowe‘s $10.7MM projection isn’t unreasonable, but Texas could hypothetically move him and turn first base over to a prospect like Justin Foscue or Dustin Harris (or a cheaper first base option in free agency, such as Carlos Santana). It’d be hard to sell low on Adolis Garcia coming off a down season, and Grant suggests such a scenario isn’t likely.
Any of those trades would only open further holes, though the Rangers have the type of MLB-ready young players (Langford, Carter, Foscue, Harris) to try to address them internally. They also have some young arms on which they could lean in the rotation — Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter — but Leiter struggled in 2024 and Rocker will be on an innings limit in 2025 as he continues working back from Tommy John surgery. The need in the bullpen is arguably more acute, and the in-house options aren’t exactly plentiful.
It’ll be a challenging offseason for president of baseball operations Chris Young. The Rangers should have some money to spend, but the number of holes are as daunting as they are surprising for a team that’s just 12 months removed from hoisting a World Series trophy.
Braves Hire Tim Hyers As Hitting Coach
The Braves announced that Tim Hyers has been hired as a hitting coach for their major league staff. He replaces Kevin Seitzer, who was fired two weeks ago. Hyers had been the hitting coach of the Rangers, so that club will now have a vacancy to fill on their staff.
Hyers, now 53, is a Georgia native. He was born in Atlanta and attended Newton County High School before being selected by the Blue Jays in the 1990 draft. He went on to play in the majors from 1994 to 1999, suiting up for the Padres, Tigers and Marlins. He moved into coaching and scouting after his playing days. He got a job as assistant hitting coach with the Dodgers for the 2016 season.
He has since served as hitting coach for two clubs, winning World Series rings with both of them. He was hired by the Red Sox going into 2018, with Boston winning the title in his first year. He was hired by the Rangers going into 2022, with the Rangers hoisting the trophy in the second of his three seasons there.
It’s always tough to separate player performance from coaching contributions, but Hyers has been around a lot of success lately. He will now take that to his hometown team, something that he is surely excited about. Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on X, Hyers still lives in the Atlanta area.
While it’s a nice homecoming for Hyers, the Rangers will now have to embark on a search for his replacement as they look to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 season. In a column at the Dallas Morning News, Grant says the club will look to make a new hire, even though they still have bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on the staff.
Central Notes: Ecker, White Sox, Lynn, Cardinals, Pirates
Reports surfaced last week that the Rangers had given permission for Donnie Ecker to interview with the White Sox about their managerial opening, but Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (X link) wrote that Ecker is no longer under consideration for the job. Ecker will instead return for what will presumably be his fourth season as the Rangers’ bench coach and offensive coordinator.
Ecker’s departure from the search could simply be due to a personal preference to remain in Texas, rather than necessarily a sign that the White Sox are getting any closer to hiring their new skipper. SoxMachine’s James Fegan described the managerial search last week as still being short of any official list of finalists, even though the team had already eliminated some candidates while still aiming to speak to some other names working for teams still alive in the playoffs. Dodgers coaches Clayton McCullough and Danny Lehmann are two names linked to the Sox that might fit this description, though a wide range of names are rumored to be on Chicago’s list. Most of the rumored candidates (like Ecker) would be first-time managers at the big league level, though Skip Schumaker and Phil Nevin both have past experience running MLB clubs.
More from both the AL and NL Central…
- A pair of IL stints due to right knee inflammation limited to Lance Lynn to just two starts over the last two months of the season, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Lynn is feeling better “and expects to have a normal offseason of preparation.” This is good news for Lynn as he heads into his 14th Major League season, and despite the knee issues, Lynn still had a solid 3.84 ERA over 117 1/3 innings for the Cardinals. Since the Cards are planning to cut payroll in a rebuild year, it isn’t a guarantee that Lynn’s $12MM club option ($1MM buyout) will be exercised, though St. Louis is probably more likely to pick up the option and then shop Lynn on the trade market this winter.
- In other Cardinals news, Goold reports that longtime front office staffer Matt Slater is leaving the organization. Slater has been with the team since 2007 working as a scout, director of player personnel, and (for the last seven seasons) as a special assistant to the GM in a player procurement capacity. These roles meant that Slater was directly involved in the acquisition of several notable Cards players, and Goold notes that Slater was particularly influential in the team’s international scouting practices. This resume drew Slater some attention from the Tigers and Phillies in past GM searches, and he probably shouldn’t have much trouble landing a new gig with another team.
- The Pirates have hired Kevin Tenenbaum to lead their analytics department as the club’s new VP of research and development, according to reporter John Dreker (X link). The 32-year-old Tenenbaum has spent the last seven seasons in Cleveland’s R&D department, working as the director in 2022 and then VP of the Guardians‘ analytics team this past season. This experience with another lower-spending team is surely of interest to the Pirates, especially given the Guards have been a lot more consistently competitive than the Bucs have in recent years despite working with generally comparative payroll.