Bruce Bochy leaves the Texas Rangers manager position
ARLINGTON, Texas – Bruce Bochy will not continue as manager of the Texas Rangers after a three-year period that began with the franchise’s first World Series championship in 2023. The team and Bochy mutually agreed to end his tenure, the Rangers announced on Monday night. Bochy received an offer for a position in the main office, as an advisor. The decision came one day after the Rangers finished with an 81-81 record. This was the first .500 record for the franchise since its inception as the Washington Senators in 1961, before moving to Texas in 1972, and it was also the first for Bochy in his 28 seasons as manager of San Diego, San Francisco and Texas. Bochy finished the three-year contract he obtained when Chris Young, one of his former pitchers, hired him after the Rangers suffered six consecutive losing seasons. During his time with the Rangers, Bochy accumulated a 249-237 record.After turning 70 this season, Bochy, the active manager with the most wins in baseball, has a career record of 2,252-2,266. His wins place him sixth among all managers; the five ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. In the last 60 years, no manager has achieved Bochy’s four World Series titles, and the only ones with more are Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Connie Mack. Bochy was out of management for three seasons before being hired by Texas. He had left the Giants’ dugout at the end of 2019, after 13 seasons and three championships from 2010 to 2014. This followed 12 seasons and another National League championship with the Padres. The Giants’ president of baseball operations is Buster Posey, the 2012 National League MVP and a seven-time All-Star catcher, who played nearly all of his 12 MLB seasons with Bochy as his manager. During the last week of the regular season, Bochy did not answer questions about his future with the Rangers, indicating that the decision would be made after the season. However, he mentioned that he was enjoying himself very much and did not seem ready to stop being a manager.Bruce Bochy is one of the best managers in baseball history, and he will always have a place in the hearts of Rangers fans after winning the first World Series title in franchise history in 2023.
Chris Young, Rangers president of baseball operations.
This season was strange and frustrating for the Rangers, who, for the first time, had a pitching staff that led the majors in ERA (3.47). They also set an MLB single-season record with a fielding percentage of .99112, surpassing the .99104 mark set by the 2013 Baltimore Orioles. Among Bochy’s possible replacements in Texas is former Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who joined the Rangers last November as a senior advisor of baseball operations. Schumaker, 45, was the National League Manager of the Year in 2023 after the Marlins went 84-78 and made the playoffs. In 2024, they fell to 62-100 with a roster decimated by trades and injuries, before the team and Schumaker agreed he would not return for this season. He was previously a bench coach for St. Louis, where he played with the Cardinals during their 2011 World Series championship against Texas. Young indicated that Schumaker would be a candidate, but that conversations had not yet been held within the organization about the search process. The Rangers were without their half-billion-dollar infield for more than a month at the end of the season, comprised of shortstop and two-time World Series MVP Corey Seager (appendectomy) and second baseman Marcus Semien (left foot), as well as 35-year-old right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who had an 11-3 record with a 1.73 ERA, the best of his career in his 14 seasons in MLB, before being sidelined due to a rotator cuff strain.It’s the most fun I’ve had in the game. I said this when I came back, you have a deeper appreciation when you’re away, especially for three years, and you realize what you have, how lucky you are to be doing what you do. It’s been a lot of fun, and I still love it and enjoy it.
Bruce Bochy
Despite the absence of these prominent figures and several rookies who replaced them, the Rangers managed a 13-3 streak to be two games behind the top of the American League West Division on September 13, and in full fight for the wild card. Then they lost their next eight games and were eliminated from the playoff contention.
The only older manager than Bochy this season was Ron Washington, 73 years old, but he didn’t manage any games for the Los Angeles Angels after June 19 due to quadruple bypass surgery.
