Skip Schumaker has been named the manager for the Texas Rangers, the team announced today. Schumaker replaces Bruce Bochy, whose contract expired after the season and who, it was announced earlier this week, would not be returning by mutual decision.
Schumaker, 45, spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons as manager of the Miami Marlins. Hired by then-g.m. Kim Ng, Schumaker led the Marlins to an 84-78 record in 2023. Excepting the 2020 pandemic season, it was the first time the Marlins had finished over .500 since 2009, and the only playoff appearance save for 2020 since the Marlins won the 2003 World Series.
However, after 2023, the Marlins decided to bring in a president of baseball operations over Ng, resulting in her departure. The team went 62-100 in 2024, and Schumaker decided not to return.
The Rangers hired him last offseason as a special assistant to Chris Young, and the thought was that, if Bruce Bochy didn’t return, Schumaker would be the leading candidate to take over. That has turned out to be the case.
The Rangers’ hiring of Skip Schumaker as manager was the biggest news out of Arlington yesterday, but some other items emerged from the club’s end-of-season press conference that took place on Friday hours before Schumaker’s deal was announced. President of baseball operations Chris Young and GM Ross Fenstermaker gave some hints about the managerial search when speaking with the Dallas Morning News’ Shawn McFarland (multiple links), MLB.com’s Drew Davison, and other media, as Young said the club wasn’t yet looking at external candidates and had “a lead candidate internally that we’re focused on.” Sure enough, the Rangers ended up promoting senior advisor Schumaker into the manager’s chair as Bruce Bochy’s successor, an outcome that was widely predicted if Bochy wasn’t returning for 2026.
Speaking of pitching coach Mike Maddux in particular, Young said the Rangers want to retain Maddux either in his current position or in some other role within the organization. The well-respected Maddux has now logged three seasons in his second stint as the Texas pitching coach, after previously working in that same job during the 2009-15 seasons. Given how the Rangers’ rotation excelled in 2025, it would seem like the ball is in Maddux’s court about whether he wants to return to Arlington in any capacity, or perhaps seek out a new challenge elsewhere.
Leave a Reply