Texas Rangers: Why Extending Jon Daniels was the Wrong Move

The Texas Rangers followed up their 2018 draft by extending long term GM, Jon Daniels and it may not have been a good move.

Jon Daniels and the opinions surrounding him have been at the forefront of a lot of discussion during this Rangers season. Texas is playing poorly 69 games in posting a 27-42 record.

Mismanagement of the Roster

The team has some young talent but the consensus is that it is being mismanaged from the top down. Additionally, the Rangers have no star power to speak of except for maybe aging veterans, Adrian Beltre and Cole Hamels. The team that JD has constructed is one dimensional at the plate and it’s backfiring big time. Daniels and the Rangers tried to take advantage of their park by stockpiling power hitting lefties. The flip side of that power is an outrageous strikeout rate. Texas leads the MLB in strikeouts as a team with 663, 17 more than 2nd place San Diego. That is unacceptable especially considering the Rangers are just 12th when it comes to team homeruns. The Rangers have three individuals in the top 20 of strikeout totals with Joey Gallo leading the way at 96 through 69 games.

This idea that Texas could put together a power-laden lineup was a pipe dream at best. It’s one thing for the New York Yankees, who have Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, to commit to the all or nothing approach, but the Rangers look like a Great Value version of that. Beyond the overall poor construction of the roster, the Rangers have also seen their top talent regress in the past couple of years. Some of that can be attributed to Jeff Banister and his coaching staff but at the end of the day, the blame hangs on the man on top, Jon Daniels. From Rougned Odor looking like an utter shell of himself, to the Jurickson Profar debacle, the Rangers have not developed young talent well save for maybe Jose Leclerc and Nomar Mazara. Even Profar, who seems to be hitting his stride, should have been a regular in the lineup years ago.

Lack of Results

It’s hard to say that the Rangers haven’t been competitive in years. They are just a season and a half removed from having the best record in baseball. And in 2015, Texas put together one of the most impressive late regular season runs to clinch a division title. While true that the club has nabbed 4 AL West titles under Jon Daniels to go along with 2 World Series appearances, the lack of a championship still stings for Rangers fans. It cuts especially deep when we watched the Houston Astros hoist the trophy just this past season.

Despite Daniels being the winningest General Manager in Rangers history, his 12 years at the helm of the franchise have lacked tangible results. Perhaps what he’s most known for now is his feud with Nolan Ryan that saw the Rangers great leave to work for the Astros.

At the end of it all, the Rangers shouldn’t have handed JD a new extension. It doesn’t seem fully deserved and maybe a little pressure could help right the ship.

Next: Texas Rangers: No Surprise, Bartolo Colon is Starting to Pitch His Age

What do you think of Daniels new contract? Comment below.

Home/Texas Rangers News