Fansided

Rangers hitting coach Dave Magadan could part ways

By David Cash |

The Texas Rangers announced prior to the hiring of their new manager Jeff Banister that the coaching staff has permission to interview with other clubs.  Since that announcement several coaches have taken that opportunity.  

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Jon Daniels said that the new manager will have the option to build his coaching staff with the people he chooses.  So far third base coach Gary Pettis is the only one to leave the organization.    Pettis spent 8 years with the Texas Rangers and was one of the last coaches that joined when Ron Washington was named manager in 2007.

The Texas Rangers hitting coach Dave Magadan has been out interviewing for several other teams and appears to be on his way out.  Magadan has only been with the team for 2 seasons and is the 5th different hitting coach they have had in the last 5 years.  The Rangers are the third different team he’s been the hitting coach for in the last 7 seasons.

During his first year as the batting coach in 2013 the team had a batting line of .262/.323/.412, which was ranked 8th best overall.  Also, during that season the Rangers managed to finish the season in a tie for the last wild card spot with the Tampa Bay Rays to force a game 163.  Over all in the majors the average was .253/.317/.396 in 2013.   For the 2013 season the Rangers had 262 doubles (ranked 20th), 23 triples (ranked 19th), and 176 home runs (ranked 8th).

The 2014 season is one that many would like to forget.  The Rangers finished with the 3rd worst record in the majors and almost had a 100-loss season if it wasn’t for finishing the season with a record of 14-8 under interim manager Tim Bogar.  As bad as things seemed the team’s batting average was still above the league average.  Last season the Rangers had a team batting line of .256/.314/.375, which was ranked number 17 overall.  The overall batting line in the majors last season was .251/.314/.386.  The biggest drop the Rangers had last season was the slugging percentage.  The main power hitter the Rangers had on the team was Adrian Beltre, who had 19 home runs.  For the 2014 season the Rangers had 260 doubles (ranked 19th), 28 triples (ranked 15th), and 123 home runs (ranked 22nd).

Graph of the Rangers batting average since 2010

Graph of the American League batting average since 2010

Overall it seems like Magadan hasn’t had much success with the Texas Rangers, but he hasn’t had the benefit of power hitters like Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz.  Instead he’s had to work with several new players and a lot of rookies over his last two seasons.   One thing that Magadan did struggle with this past season was helping players like Prince Fielder and J.P. Arencibia.

Currently the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics are looking to hire him from the Rangers.

Magadan was also being looked at by the Boston Red Sox, but they choose to go with Chili Davis instead.   It seems very encouraging that teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and the Athletics are considering Magadan as their hitting coach.  That seems to indicate that others still believe in him and think they can help their organization.  Rangers manager Jeff Banister has met with Dave Magadan and had talks about him returning in 2015.  Nothing has been announced yet what Banister wishes to do.    So if the Rangers do decided to keep him that might not be a bad thing.  Most fans would probably disagree, but to be honest this season was more about the injuries than the weak offense.  Now that Jeff Banister is the new manager he should quickly be deciding how to build his coaching staff for the 2015 season.  That means he’ll either decide to part ways with Dave Magadan or Magadan will find a new job soon to allow Banisiter to search for a new hitting coach.  Which ever happens hopefully the offense will be better this season and they’ll have better power numbers.

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