MOAR UPDATE:  Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels appeared on the DFW ESPN affiliate yesterday and angrily rejected the rumors that the final schism between himself and Ron Washington was over Yu Darvish or Disabled List management.  He also suggested that the personal issue Wash was dealing with would be made public at some point, most likely by Washington.  On one hand, of course you would expect Daniels to say something like that.  On the other hand, no matter how much other Rangers fans or I think that Wash is a bad manager and needed to be fired, Daniels had made it pretty clear that he was dedicated to Ron Washington remaining the Manager for the foreseeable future.  On the third hand, Jon Daniels has a practically unbeatable poker face.

The bottom line is that I think Jon Daniels is a good General Manager, and I want to believe that a good General Manager would realize that Ron Washington needs to be fired.  Therefore, I want to believe that Ron Washington didn't resign, but was actually fired for supporting a position *so* "old school" (a pitcher pitching through an elbow injury) that he was a liability to the team.  There is, however, a certain amount of cognitive dissonance involved.  Jon Daniels isn't just claiming that Ron Washington wasn't fired for his Disabled List opinion, Daniels is claiming that Washington doesn't have the opinion that he has been documented as sharing with the media.  This is starting to sound a bit like when Nolan Ryan resigned before the season started.  Officially, there were no disagreements, no problems with division of responsibility, no egos.  Unofficially, we all know those are the reasons Ryan isn't Team President or C.E.O. any more.

UPDATE:  Rangers infield coach Gary Pettis tweeted a message yesterday wishing Ron Washington a speedy recovery, lending credence to the health problems some fans have suspected.  However, Washington denied any health problems for him or his wife later in the day.  Earlier today, a writer at a Rangers blog, claiming inside knowledge, reported that the straw that broke the camel's back, as it were, was Jon Daniels' decision to keep Yu Darvish on the disabled list for the rest of the season.  This allegedly resulted in a screaming match that ended with Washington notifying the players of a team meeting set at 3:00 PM the next day, which ended up following his 2:00 PM resignation.

I normally don't like jumping into something that's only a step above rumor-mongering.  However, if this latest alleged incident between Wash and J.D. turns out to be valid, it would not only fit in with other comments Washington has made, but also with how he has managed his roster over the past few years.  It also brings into question exactly what Jon Daniels has done regarding managing the disabled list, as ostensibly, that is one of his major in-season responsibilities.  Another major point of contention is Shin-soo Choo, who arguably should have been on the DL months ago.  Decisions like that aren't made without the input of doctors, the player and the Manager, but if this report is accurate, it's pretty clear that Daniels and Washington were not on the same page regarding injury management.

------------------------------------------

Of course, nobody believes that.  At least not completely.

However, I think it's important to get the face-value option out of the way immediately.  Mr. Washington, if this is a personal issue of such magnitude, drug-related or not; then this sounds like a serious problem and I seriously wish you all my best going forward.  I pray all is well with your family, and I hope to see you in baseball again some day.

We have to talk about the other hand, though.  And the other hand is that nobody really believes that this is a coincidence, coming on the heels of both managers and general managers losing their jobs this past week.  All of the firings were from teams that are a few games ahead of Texas, despite being perennial cellar dwellers who were able to point out the best seats to the newly-arriving Rangers.  It is really hard to believe that Ron Washington wasn't actually asked to resign.

I've mentioned before that I thought Washington should go.  He's a poor game manager, and I have seen no sign of his vaunted abilities as a motivator, father-figure or "player's manager".  I was, as far as I can tell, one of the few bloggers who felt there was a good chance Wash was gone before next year.  Although, to be fair, I wasn't expecting this resignation.

Before the "personal reasons, we mean it" press conference, I was planning out in my head the reasons why Wash would have been fired.  As I went over the past few months, the big thing, timing-wise, that really fits with both the unsubstantiated "big changes coming" rumors that inevitably start flying at this time of year and the actual performance and timing of the resignation, was Washington's comments on Yu Darvish pitching with elbow inflammation in order to "not quit" on his teammates.  It's the kind of statement that has caused managers to be fired before.  When you call out a player, you can't walk that statement back.  The Players' Union crawls right up your ass and camps.  Ownership flips out because you just slapped in public a superstar player that the team relies on.

Maybe Ron Washington is leaving for personal reasons, maybe he isn't.  But if he isn't, it's because his personal philosophy of managing is so out-of-whack with current medical knowledge and technology that he had clearly shown himself to be a liability.

Steven Goldman:

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 05, 2014 07:13 PM (eNsTS)

Hide Comments | Add Comment