New Rangers manager leaves positive, familiar first impression

The Jeff Banister managerial era began Friday morning with an introductory news conference at Globe Life Park that started to tell the story of what the Texas Rangers could become.

If a team indeed follows the personality of its manager, the Rangers will play with emotion — tons of it — and love and family will flow in the clubhouse.

On the field, the Rangers will do what the games ask them to do, and they will play baseball with a controlled aggression.

Their manager will have their back, and he will lead with his presence and his work ethic. Banister is a baseball lifer, and a life survivor. Those are things that players respect and admire.

For all the talk that the Rangers had hired a mini Clint Hurdle in Banister — and there are reminders of Hurdle in the way Banister speaks and the substance of what he says — there are also reminders of Ron Washington in Banister.

“He’s the white Wash,” said left-hander Derek Holland, one of three players who attended the news conference.

And that’s not a bad thing.

Washington resigned Sept. 5 as the franchise’s leader in managerial victories and as the only manager to win a playoff series and to take the Rangers to the World Series.

Banister, who left after four-plus years as the bench coach in Pittsburgh to sign a three-year contract with an option for 2018, hopes to take the Rangers into October on a regular basis by playing largely as Washington’s best teams did.

Banister wants multifaceted players who can easily adjust to the demands of each game. He wants them to give themselves up at the plate when needed. He wants them to take extra bases when they are there.

He wants players to “be extraordinary at the ordinary” on defense, and he wants pitchers to compete while attacking the strike zone and working quickly.

“The game presents different situations every single night,” Banister said. “You’ve got to be capable of executing. You’ve got to have the drive to execute. You need to be selfless.”

Banister didn’t take the job without doing his own due diligence, which uncovered a roster of players who he knows are capable and should make the Rangers a contender from the start of his tenure.

He understands that the Rangers were tormented by injuries in 2014, which helped contribute to a 95-loss campaign. He also knows that the Rangers have a deep farm system, one that will have its best players reaching Triple A in 2015.

A team can’t have success without help from the minors, and one of the assets that the Rangers believe Banister brings is an ability to develop players at the major league level.

He called the scouting and development departments “our lifeblood.”

But the 25 players and the coaching staff who will be on the Opening Day roster next year will be Banister’s immediate focus. The player-manager relationship begins with trust, and the process of building trust is under way.

Banister spoke to the players at Globe Life Park on Friday and also with pitching coach Mike Maddux for more than an hour.

“My plan is I want to connect with every single player to get to know them and they get to know me so I can start building a relationship,” Banister said. “One that they know they can trust and believe in my words and my actions so that when they see me walk through the door in spring training they understand what the expectations are.”

The message was warmly received.

“I think he’ll be a great manager,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “The whole press conference, it was really emotions. It showed me that he’s going to be out there for us. No matter what happens, he’s going to have our back, and he’s going to be fighting until the last out.”

Banister didn’t reveal too much into what his coaching staff will look like. He has spoken to Maddux, hitting coach Dave Magadan and bench coach Tim Bogar, whom he beat out for the job.

Maddux said that his first encounter with Banister was a positive one.

“I thought he seemed like a very good person, a very grounded person, a family man, very humble,” Maddux said. “The fact that he and I met, that was the groundwork. It was a very nice time spent.”

Banister made a favorable first impression, which makes sense because he reminds some of the man he left behind in Pittsburgh as well as the one is replacing with the Rangers.

“When you have somebody with that much passion and love for the game, it can get into you and make you play better,” Andrus said. “What I’ve seen from him, he reminds me little bit of Clint and Wash. Passionate guys. When you have a manager who’s like that, it makes it easier for you to play.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2014 at 12:09 PM with the headline "New Rangers manager leaves positive, familiar first impression."