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Clint Hurdle might have been a man without a job, but he wasn’t a man without options only about five months removed from his job as manager of the Colorado Rockies.
The one thing he learned while out of the game for the first time in decades is that he wasn’t ready to trade the dugout for a front-office desk.But not just any dugout. An on-field job needed to give him a challenge and a chance to win a world championship. Hurdle believes he has found that with the Texas Rangers.He was hired Thursday as their hitting coach, replacing longtime instructor Rudy Jaramillo. Hurdle’s first task, one he said begins immediately, is to get to know the players who have known only one big-league hitting coach for most of their careers.Hurdle, who signed a one-year deal with a club option, is eager to start building trust."Players don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care," said Hurdle, who was the Rockies’ manager from 2002 until he was fired May 29. "Change can bring upon controversy. I’m going to try to make this as seamless a transition as can be."Rangers hitters, he said, don’t need to worry about seeing their swings being overhauled. But Hurdle will try to change the way the hitters think, or at least reinforce the way the Rangers want to play the game next season.Team brass has talked about the need for situational hitting, and that’s what Hurdle will preach."You can really create some separation from other teams by your ability to enhance and utilize productively all 27 outs in a game," said Hurdle, who was the Rockies’ hitting coach from 1997 until replacing Buddy Bell as manager in 2002."We’re going to try to make everybody a little bit better, which will make the team better, and challenge each other to really understand the importance of scoring a run and driving in a run."Hurdle, 52, emerged from a group of four candidates who interviewed Monday. General manager Jon Daniels said that Hurdle became the clear choice over Thad Bosley, Rusty Greer and Gerald Perry.Manager Ron Washington said Hurdle will hold Rangers hitters accountable. That’s a trait Washington saw first-hand in 1992 as the third-base coach for a Triple-A Tidewater team that was managed by Hurdle."I think more than anything else that is an asset that Clint has had that I’ve always loved, he’s always made everyone accountable," Washington said. "I felt like we needed some presence. He brings that. We needed some experience, and I think we needed immediate impact. I think Clint brings that."Hurdle had an opportunity to remain with Colorado in the front office and had some feelers about other jobs in baseball. But the chance to work for the Rangers, with whom he has many ties and he has learned has an enviable skill set, was too hard to pass up.The combination of speed and power puts the Rangers in select company in the major leagues, he said. The goal is to realize that home runs and base hits aren’t the only way to produce runs."It’s not all about the hit," Hurdle said. "Not that any hitter thinks that way, but most often our first thought is our most important thought. We want to really ingrain to them a team-first mentality."ONLINE: texasrangers.com
Clint Hurdle Age: 52 Resides: DenverNo. 9 overall pick in 1975 draft by Kansas City Made big-league debut Sept. 18, 1977 Played 10 seasons with four teams A career .259 hitter with a .341 on-base percentage Spent six seasons as a manager in Mets organization Joined Rockies organization in 1994 Became hitting coach in 1997 and stayed in the role until replacing Buddy Bell as manager in April 2002 Guided Rockies to 2007 World Series Was fired as manager May 29 Worked as a guest analyst at MLB Network, where Rangers senior adviser John Hart also works
Jeff Wilson, 817-390-7760
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