Texas Rangers to name Pirates Jeff Banister as new manager

The Texas Rangers search for a new manager appears to be over.  On Monday they had trimmed the list down to Jeff Banister, Kevin Cash and Tim Bogar.  Throughout the week they have been interviewing each candidate and talking around the league about each one.  Yesterday it appeared that Banister was becoming the clear choice because the Rangers were reaching out to several other team about him.

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Today several sources are report that sometime very soon the Texas Rangers will announce the Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister as their new manager.

This doesn’t come as huge surprise.  Tim Bogar was an early favorite for the new manager.  Especially how he was able to get the Rangers to finish the regular season.  Before Bogar took over the team was easily on their way to a 100 loss season and quite possibly the worst season in franchise history.    As the interim manager Bogar finished the season with a record of 14-8.

Hiring Jeff Banister as the Rangers new manager is a very good decision.  Nothing wrong with picking Tim Bogar he would have made a good choice also.  Banister has been with the Pirates for 29 years.

Banister has served as coach for the Pirates minor league system from 1994-1999.  He served as a manager for several of the Pirates minor league teams also throughout the 1990s.  From 1999 to 2002 he was the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Field Coordinator.  He’s served as pitching coach in the minors and in 2010 was named as the Pirates bench coach.

Banister has worked very close with the scouts in the past, had done a great job at picking talent for the organization and is also a manager who appreciates and uses the advanced stats (sabermetrics).  Banister seems to be the whole package when it comes to a modern day manager.

Now that the Texas Rangers have selected a new manager, the next phase will be allowing Banister to select the coaches for his staff.  Dave Magadan has already been interviewing with other clubs.  Hopefully Banister will be able to keep Tim Bogar as his bench coach.