Major Breaking: Texas Rangers Welcome Back Legendary Manager After Disagreement With Correct Coach
Former Rangers OF Jankowski highlights adds to complete ’26 coaching staff
ARLINGTON — Two years ago, Travis Jankowski became a Rangers cult hero when he stepped up in place of an injured Adolis García for the final two games of the 2023 World Series and collected a pair of RBIs in Game 4.
Now, two years after helping the Rangers to the first World Series title in franchise history, Jankowski joins Skip Schumaker’s coaching staff as first-base coach.
Jankowski’s final MLB game came on July 8 of this season with the Mets, concluding an 11-year career with eight teams.
A former first-round pick by the Padres in 2012, Jankowski became known for his defense and baserunning during his big league career.
]“Travis is one of my favorite teammates and players I’ve ever coached, just because of the man he is and what he represents,” Schumaker said. “I’ve always thought, in the back of my head, when Travis does decide to retire, he would be just an incredibly impactful coach because of how he sees relationships and how he sees the game. There’s a lot of built-in relationships that I’m excited for him to have and really jump-start his career with a lot of the guys that he won a World Series with.”
The Rangers finalized the majority of the 2026 big league coaching staff on Wednesday, including six returnees from Bruce Bochy’s staff.
Luis Urueta (bench coach) and Dave Bush (assistant pitching coach) will return in the same roles, while the other four will move to new roles
Corey Ragsdale will move from first-base to third-base coach
Jordan Tiegs was promoted to lead pitching coach, filling the role vacated by Mike Maddux
Justin Viele was promoted to lead hitting coach, filling the role vacated by Bret Boone
Brett Hayes will move from quality control coach to catchers coach, filling the role vacated by Bobby Wilson
Other new additions to the staff include hitting coach Alex Cintrón, quality control coach Rod Barajas and bullpen coach Colby Suggs. The Rangers will announce the final member of the 2026 coaching staff at a later date, but it will be an additional hitting coach.
Cintrón will be charged with helping Viele fix a Rangers offense that has regressed over the last two seasons.
Cintrón joins the Rangers after spending nine seasons on the Astros’ coaching staff. He served as a Major League coach (2017), first-base coach (2018) and hitting coach (2019-25).
During his seven-year tenure as Houston’s hitting coach, the Astros led the American League in both OPS (.764) and on-base percentage (.329), also ranking in batting average (2nd, .259), slugging percentage (2nd, .435), runs per game (3rd, 4.90), home runs (3rd, 1,386) and walks (3rd, 3,403).
“Alex has a pretty nice resume,” Schumaker said. “He developed some really young players into some pretty good big league hitters. He had the ear of some really good guys over in Houston that I trust when talking to a couple of the former players over there. … The hitting coach, that is not a fun job at all. They love it. I don’t know how they love it so much, because it is hard. But he has a passion for hitting, and really excited that he’s on board.”
Barajas, a former Rangers catcher, recently served as assistant coach with the Angels’ Double-A Rocket City affiliate in 2025. From 2023-24, he was the field coordinator in Miami under Schumaker.
Suggs — a Sulphur Springs, Texas, native — recently spent four seasons as bullpen coach with the Twins. During his tenure with Minnesota, relievers recorded the fourth-most strikeouts (2,152) and fifth-fewest walks (775) in the American League.
With Maddux’s departure to the Angels, Suggs will join the two other returning pitching coaches — Tiegs and Bush — to try to help the Rangers remain one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. In 2025, Texas led all of baseball in rotation ERA (3.41) and ranked fifth in bullpen ERA (3.62).
“Jordan Tiegs is an enormous hire for our organization,” Schumaker said. “This guy is really, really good. I know a lot of people don’t know who he is [externally]. Our players were really impacted in a positive way through Jordan. Jordan and Bush, they were a huge part of that pitching department last year.
“Then Colby Suggs, I identified right away. I’m very grateful that he decided to pick the Texas Rangers. I think he’s a needle-mover. He’s young, he’s innovative, but he also pitched at a high level in college and was very successful in the bullpens in Minnesota. And a fantastic hire. I’m very grateful for that one.”
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