The Texas Rangers have hired Bruce Bochy as their manager, bringing the three-time World Series champion out of a short retirement to take over a team that has had six consecutive losing seasons.
Texas made the surprising announcement Friday, just more than two weeks after its season ended.
The 67-year-old Bochy hasn’t managed since 2019, when he stepped away after 13 seasons and those World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants, the first of which was a five-game win over Texas in 2010. Rangers general manager Chris Young played for Bochy with San Diego in 2006.
“As we went through the interview process, Bruce’s passion and excitement about returning to the dugout was very evident,” Young said. “It became clear he was the ideal individual to lead our club as we continue to build a championship culture here in Arlington.”
Bochy has won 2,003 games as a manager, 951 with San Diego from 1995 to 2006 and 1,052 with San Francisco from 2007-19.
The Rangers fired fourth-year manager Chris Woodward on Aug. 15, two days before president of baseball operations and former GM Jon Daniels was also let go. Texas went on to finish 68-94, eight wins more than 2021 but what Young said, “was about half of our internal expectations.”
Texas was 17-31 under interim manager Tony Beasley, the longtime Rangers third base coach who was once Young’s manager in the minor leagues. Several young players got extended looks during that span, and the GM said in August that Beasley wouldn’t be judged solely on win-loss record. Beasley was interviewed for the job two days after the season ended.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
