Do players have a problem with Rangers management?

I was surprised, for the most part, when most Rangers fans dismissed Ian Kinsler's slam of the Texas Rangers and the organization's front office.  Jon Daniels, the Rangers GM, has been the target of vitriol ever since Nolan Ryan was stripped of the Team President title and Daniels was promoted.  However, the few people who have commented in support of Kinsler have generally expressed a similar opinion to that espoused in this Shutdown Inning piece.

Even worse than that is if the players do really hate his guts for various reasons and Washington isn’t able to keep the fence up between his dugout and the front office. It’s a fun bit to pretend that Jon Daniels is a ninja or has Jedi-like abilities, but the reality for all general managers is that the shelf life for success is usually very inconsistent and often fleeting. Another fun twitter exercise is to bag on Nolan for his age, his old-school mentality and his overall disdain for anything metric related, but what if his presence WAS that valuable to the players as Kinsler alluded to? If Nolan in fact was the glue that kept the bridge between the front office, Washington, and the players’ together things could unravel quickly in 2014 and beyond. Nolan choosing to go back to Houston and join an organization that embraces advanced metrics and that new paradigm in baseball management more than most orgs out there may speak more to the personality issues rather than the baseball philosophy differences here in Arlington. What if Jon Daniels has become so incorrigible that he has become blinded by his own ego and desire to prove Nolan and other doubters wrong that rash decisions are quickly approaching? Acting on ego and emotion is typically not a good policy.

I tried to comment to the article but couldn't ever get a comment through; if my multiple submissions ever actually show up I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for causing problems.  I have instead provided my response below:

I thought on this a bit after the Kinsler comments came out. In the end, like everything else, you have to look at the evidence. The players who have expressed dissatisfaction are all players that Daniels got closer to than he should have when he first joined the club; a mistake that he has admitted to. Doesn't make it right, but it is valid context.

There is no evidence that Nolan Ryan ever served as the "glue" for the team, as repeatedly big-name free agent pitchers refused to sign with Texas, sometimes even despite better contractual offers. That certainly could have been because of Jon Daniels' presence, but it shows that *if* that were the case, then Nolan wasn't powerful enough to overcome dislike for Daniels.

But even then, since Ryan left Daniels traded for Fielder (who could have blocked the trade), Choo rejected a contract with New York to sign with Texas, and Michael Young turned down multiple contracts to come back to Texas and retire as a Ranger. Martin Perez signed an incredibly team-friendly contract for several years. Colby Lewis signed on for another year despite seeking a major-league contract. None of these things seem to indicate players want to stay away from Daniels.

So, I don't really see any sign of Daniels being a problem. In fact, it would seem that having Ryan around was more detrimental to contracts than Daniels. The point being, three players have generally trashed the Rangers front office, while complementing Nolan Ryan; yet it doesn't seem to actually mean anything to anyone beyond these three players. Which indicates to me that the problem was isolated and isn't a general issue with the organization.

Time will tell, of course.

Posted by: Ben at 10:36 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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