Has Jon Daniels Done a Good Job for the Texas Rangers?

The Texas Rangers have seen their most successful era in franchise history come and go, yet the fans still want to see the man responsible for it fired. So that begs the question: Has Jon Daniels done a good job as the Rangers General Manager?

Jon Daniels was hired at the conclusion of the 2005 MLB season, and in his time with the Rangers has seen the team go to 5 postseasons (not including a game 163, or in 2009 when they won 87 and would have made the playoffs with current Wild Card system), 4 division titles, and 2 ALCS crowns. From 2010-2016, the team only played in the standard 162 games just once, and from 2009-2016, they only posted one losing season (2014).

There is a very loud portion of fans that want to see Daniels and the team cut ties, since the team has no playoff expectations for this season, like last year, and they are sick of him not going and signing every free agent possible like Machado, Harper, Keuchel, etc.

It is completely understandable that fans get frustrated when their team is not winning, but for some reason, it seems like the Rangers fans have just been spoiled by how well the team did from 2009-16, and they expect the team to compete forever. It seems as if these fans forget that we are not the Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox, who can spend however much money they want just to make playoffs, and sprinkle in a World Series every once in a while (except LA).

It is also tough to watch your biggest rival, the Astros win a world series, and be one of the best teams in baseball. But it is also easy to forget the past when you see a team being as successful as the Astros, and what their fan base had to go through to get there… from 2011-2013, the Astros were the joke of the MLB, having three straight seasons of losing over 105 games. Naturally, when you are that bad and get as many top picks as they did, you will eventually hit on some of them, and turn things around (which they obviously did).

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It is easy to forget that from when the Rangers arrived in Arlington in 1972, it took the team until 1996 for the team to see its first postseason action. Then after the team’s last division title in 1999, it took over 10 years to see playoff action yet again.

All-in-all, it is pretty absurd to want a guy like Jon Daniels fired. The man has done a fantastic job for this team in his almost 15 years here, and as fans, we have been spoiled to the point where we expect to be in the playoffs every season. Let’s not forget that Daniels is just responsible for what goes out on the field. He can’t control things like a fly ball hit to right field being caught, or three pretty routine plays to the shortstop that get botched.