The Texas Rangers fired longtime general manager/president of baseball operations Jon Daniels during this past season.
Manager Chris Woodward suffered the same fate: ownership evidently did not like the direction of the franchise after having spent more than $500 million over the offseason.
After being unemployed for almost three months, Daniels has found another organization.
“The Rays have announced the hiring of Jon Daniels as a senior advisor for baseball operations. Daniels was the Rangers’ lead baseball executive from Oct. 2005 until the team fired him in August,” MLB insider Ken Rosenthal tweeted.
The Rays have announced the hiring of Jon Daniels as a senior advisor for baseball operations. Daniels was the Rangers’ lead baseball executive from Oct. 2005 until the team fired him in August.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 11, 2022
The Tampa Bay Rays are continually looking for brilliant young, inexperienced executives to take advantage of their knowledge in data, research, and talent identification: that’s why some of the current general managers in baseball, such as Andrew Friedman, Chaim Bloom, James Click, and others have Rays roots.
Daniels Will Bring Experience To Tampa
Daniels is not exactly an inexperienced addition, however, so this is a bit of an odd add.
However, they have come to understand that experience has value, too, and Daniels has lots of it.
Being in charge of baseball decisions for the Rangers since 2005, he took the franchise to two consecutive World Series in 2010 and 2011, losing both.
He was MLB’s Executive of the Year in 2010, too.
It’s not clear what kind of decision power, if any, Daniels will have in Tampa, but since his role is an advisor, there is a good chance he won’t call the plays.
He will still be a valuable member of the front office, however, and was very involved in the game all these years, as recently as August.
He is a quality hire by the Rays.
