What does Texas Rangers’ trade deadline inaction say about Chris Woodward’s future?
Is Chris Woodward’s future as the Texas Rangers manager in jeopardy?
Team president Jon Daniels judiciously touched on the topic during Tuesday’s trade deadline press conference with general manager Chris Young.
Daniels was asked if the team’s performance the final two months of the season would affect whether Woodward remains with the team for his fifth season in 2023.
“I think there is real value in building momentum into 2023 for a host of reasons, really to do with our fans, and the club and expectations for next year,” Daniels said. “We said pretty clearly that we expected to take a step forward this year. We had hoped to maybe overachieve a little bit and be in playoff contention. We really feel like, for next year, we expect to win.”
The Rangers, who have lost 13 of their past 19 games, including 8-2 to the Orioles Tuesday at Globe Life Field, have been reeling since flirting with .500 at the end of June.
The spiral has taken the starch out of what had been an increasingly interesting club that was starting to eye a possible wild card berth. At 11 games below .500 and out of the hunt, Daniels said the team altered its view of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
“We are where we are in the standings, but that’s not a reflection of any one person or any one group,” he said. “Ultimately, that’s on the two of us [Daniels and Young]. I think Woody and the staff are working tirelessly and do whatever they can to continue to develop this group and push forward.”
The Rangers are an MLB-worst 5-23 in one-run games. That’s a .179 winning percentage, which would be the league’s all-time worst record in one-run games, eclipsing the Diamondbacks’ 10-31 (.244) in 2021.
Woodard, who took over a fledgling team with a bare farm system in 2019, is looking at his fourth consecutive losing season, although the team is much improved from a year ago when it lost 102 games.
This story was originally published August 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
