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Rangers’ Jon Daniels discusses the ‘Why?’ and ‘Why now?’ of Chris Woodward’s dismissal

Daniels appeared on 105.3 The Fan shortly after the club parted ways with its manager.

Rangers’ President of Baseball Operations Jon Daniels recently joined The G-Bag Nation on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] to discuss the dismissal of manager Chris Woodward.

Here are some of the highlights, edited for clarity and brevity:

Q: One of my takeaways from your press conference was that you guys didn’t feel like Chris Woodward was getting the guys ready to play. Is that an accurate statement, and is that one of the main reasons you decided to move on?

Daniels: It’s a variation of that. Woody is as tireless a worker as you’re gonna find. He does not shy away from a challenge, he’s all about putting in the hours and encouraging the players to do it.

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There’s different styles, right? There’s different ways to get to the same goal. Some clubs are tighter, more rules, things like that. Some clubs are looser. And you can get to the same point to have a successful club going about it either way. We felt, where we are right now, we’re coming together and there’s some positives. We felt from a stylistic standpoint, helping the players, there was an opportunity to kind of tighten some things up right now.

Absolutely love Woody, love what he’s brought to the club. It was a really challenging call, an emotional one because we’re close. But that’s why, in essence, we made this decision. We think there’s a different style needed to push the players, and push us closer to where we need to be.

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Q: What style is that?

Daniels: I’m gonna answer your question. When I do, I’m hesitant because... Woody and myself and [Rangers’ GM Chris Young] share a vision about what that style looks like. I think how you get there is more where the difference of opinion is. And I respect that.

We saw some things in his work with the Dodgers, a very different type of roster/club than we have, things he believes in, and C-Y and I looked at it and felt like to get to where we wanna go, we needed to change it. The style is one where we really focus on the fundamentals, attacking the little things, and a lot of that is accomplished by practicing them. And working on them, and having a sense of discipline and structure in your daily routine. And the players understanding that that is critical and important to what we wanna do, and that there’s high standards in those areas.

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So it really comes back to getting back to the basics, the fundamentals, a lot of those areas. And creating a little bit more structure around the way that we work. But the end goal that Woody would see and we would see, it’s still very similar, it’s more about how you get there.

Q: Well you know Ron Washington will get down there with your infielders, he’ll be all over those details.

Daniels: [Laughs] There’s no doubt, man. He will get after it.

Q: The ‘Why now?’ I think was the question we saw the most. Why after winning a series against a division opponent vs. doing it earlier or maybe waiting?

Daniels: We did not take the timing lightly. We had a lot going on with the draft, the trade deadline and Hall of Fame weekend. There was an evaluation going on at all times for all of us, myself included. C-Y and I have talked about, ‘Let’s wait until after the Hall of Fame stuff to really sit down and go through it.’ So we really spent quite a bit of time on it [Sunday], we had some informal conversations. And then we sat down with ownership [Monday morning] and made the recommendation, and ultimately made the decision there.

I think the ‘Why now?’ is because we feel like there’s still a lot to be gained this year. Obviously we are where we are in the standings and that speaks for itself. But as far as improving going forward for next year, setting the groundwork and kind of changing the expectations, day-in day-out, we thought there was value in doing that now rather than waiting until next year.

Tony Beasley, we feel like he can really help us in that regard. Obviously we’re gonna have a search in the offseason, which Tony will be included as a real candidate for. But whether long term it’s Tony or somebody else, we felt like we would benefit next year and beyond from starting that process right now.

Q: At this point who do you feel are the leaders on the team, and do you feel like you have enough of them?

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Daniels: I think you could always have more, and keep improving your leadership core. Some of it’s developed over time, I think there are some guys who have leadership attributes. As far as the kind of “outspoken” or the guys who can do it vocally, Marcus Semien stands out. He’s not a rah-rah guy, most leaders aren’t, that’s more for the movies than reality. He has unbelievable routines, speaks with young guys sitting by his locker, I see him setting the example. I see some of the young guys, he does this great routine postgame where he stretches, I think that’s led to some of his positive health and durability record. He’ll take some of the young guys in and encourage them to do some of these things, find a routine that works for themselves.

Corey Seager is really intense in his preparation and how he goes about it. He’s probably more of a lead-by-example kind of guy. Kole Calhoun’s another guy that can be vocal in how he goes about his business.

Q: Did you have to apologize to Woody? Did you feel like you let him down, or ‘I didn’t do everything possible for you?’

Daniels: It wasn’t an apology, per se, but certainly a recognition that... You know, Woody came in, we were kind of in-between, we’d discussed internally rebuilding at that point, we hadn’t done it. We weren’t all-in to win, and we weren’t rebuilding either, we were caught in between. We basically finished .500 his first year. And it wasn’t until the middle of 2020 that we really committed to a rebuild.

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So his first year and a half, we were in-between. The next year and a half, we were rebuilding. And then this year, we’re just starting to come up on the other side of that hill.

So there was no point in time where Woody had a roster that we expected championships from, that we truly thought was a playoff contender. This year did we have some aspirations that we could overachieve? Yes, that was an upside goal. But there’s no doubt, we never started a season in Woody’s four years here with a roster that we felt was truly a top-level contending roster. Certainly we recognize that. To Woody’s credit, he shook it off, he never talked about it, he never made excuses. But we know, and I think he knows that that’s the case.

Q: During the presser you mentioned you’d like to see some momentum during these final 48 games. What is the momentum you’d like to see? What is the evaluation process like for Beas during these last 48 games?

Daniels: I think C-Y said it really well at the presser. Wins and losses obviously always play some role, but the bigger element that we’re looking at with Tony is how the club responds to him and the rest of the staff — midstream, no spring training to implement things, we’re 114-whatever games into the season. Can they get the players midstream to change course and change the way that we prepare a little bit. And that’s gonna come with asking a little bit more of them tightening some things up the day leading up to a game.

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I think how the club responds to that, how the players respond to that. I think you’ll see that in our style of play on the field, we’re hoping it’s a little bit cleaner style. Little more fundamental. Might take a little time to put that in play, but that’s what we’re looking for in terms of building momentum toward next year.

To listen to the full interview, click here.

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