It's the Texas Rangers' turn to purge their management team

When the Rangers fired team president Jon Daniels this week, only 48 hours after doing the same to manager Chris Woodward, it ended what had been the third-longest reign among those running baseball operations for one of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Daniels, raised in Queens and a product of Manhattan’s Hunter College High School, often came up as candidate for the Mets’ job during his 17 years running baseball operations in Texas. Considering that the Flushing gig was available roughly seven times over that same period — depending on your definition of available — that’s pretty often.

Only the A’s Billy Beane and the Yankees’ Brian Cashman have been at the helm of their organizations longer than Daniels (the White Sox’s Kenny Williams started as general manager as far back as 2000 and remains in the front office, but Rick Hahn officially has held that title since 2012). Daniels didn’t have the ownership stake or the low expectations that keep Beane firmly rooted with the A’s or Cashman’s unmatched consistency for winning, even if it that includes only one ring in the last 22 years.

Obviously, Beane faces much different demands in small-market Oakland, where he’s been lionized as the godfather of “Moneyball” (even played by Brad Pitt in the movie) and is responsible for exactly zero World Series appearances since he took over in 1997. Beane’s tally over 24 seasons is 11 playoff trips, and only once making it as far as the ALCS. Annually saddled with one of the sport’s lowest payrolls, Beane’s reputation for doing more with less has been deteriorating in recent years, and now presiding over the A’s disgraceful teardown to lobby for a new ballpark — either on the Oakland waterfront or somewhere off the Las Vegas strip — is a black mark on his resume.

Cashman faces much different scrutiny with the Yankees, whose annual mission statement is world championship or bust, and is afforded a top-three budget to achieve that goal each year. The problem for Cashman is becoming his failure to deliver that prize, or even make it to the World Series, where the Yankees haven’t been since winning their 2009 title. But Cashman has engineered 20 playoff trips over his 23-year tenure and never had a losing record.

The Steinbrenner family’s legacy of investing in a top payroll every year in a sport with no salary cap is a significant contributing factor, to be sure. We’ll probably never know what Cashman could do without the Yankees’ deep resources, which stretch from the player-development side to the major-league clubhouse to bleeding-edge analytics tech.

But the simple act of writing checks is no guarantee of success, and the Rangers opening the vault this past offseason partly led to the demise of Woodward, then Daniels two days later. The Rangers spent $500 million on two players in the two pre-lockout signings of Corey Seager (10 years, $325M) and Marcus Semien (7 years, $175M) yet were 13 games under .500 (53-66) heading into Saturday, 23 games behind the first-place Astros and 10 1/2 games out of the wild card. The Rangers’ 2022 payroll is $140 million, according to Spotrac.com, but $19 million of that is going to two players no longer on the team, Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor.  

At this point, it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing the Rangers in October for the sixth straight season (although their 3-year-old stadium, Globe Life Field, hosted the 2020 playoffs because of the pandemic). So Woodward, in his first shot at manager, exits with a .424 winning percentage (211-287) after three-plus seasons and Daniels is out the door after five playoff trips in those 17 years, including back-to-back World Series losses in 2010 and 2011.

Of course, the Rangers were one strike away from the title, multiple times, in Game 6 of that ’11 Fall Classic, and the fortunes of the franchise would have been forever changed if Nelson Cruz doesn’t misplay David Freese’s fly ball into a triple that night at Busch Stadium. Instead, Texas is just another lost franchise plunged into another rebuilding cycle, now steered by former Mets pitcher Chris Young, hired to work as the GM under Daniels in 2020.

As Rangers owner Ray Davis said in his statement releasing Daniels: “But the bottom line is we have not had a winning record since 2016 and for much of that time, have not been competitive in the AL West."

Georgia on their mind

Promising young centerfielder Michael Harris II, a good bet for NL Rookie of the Year, became the latest to sign a long-term extension with Atlanta this week, an eight-year deal worth $72 million. The package also includes a pair of ’31 and ’32 club options for $15 million and $20 million, each with $5 million buyouts.

As much as GM Alex Anthopoulos hopes to jump the market by offering these extensions, he’s also taking advantage of players who are comfortable staying home, as Harris is another Atlanta-area native, joining Matt Olson, who signed an eight-year, $168 million deal days after Anthopoulos acquired him from the A’s. Earlier this month, Atlanta locked up All-Star third baseman Austin Riley with a 10-year, $212 million extension.

It’s a dice roll, of course, to lay out so much cash up front. But not only does Atlanta have the money to take these calculated risks, it has collected players who clearly want to remain in that market, as well as persuading them with the promise of sustained success by securing their young teammates. Atlanta started this round three years ago by signing Ronald Acuna Jr. to an eight-year, $100 million extension (with two club options that stretch through 2028) and Ozzie Albies to the extremely team-friendly contract of seven years, $35 million (with two options through 2027).

While Anthopoulos has fortifued the foundation of the defending world champs, Mets first-year GM Billy Eppler is facing a much different task, as a dozen players on the current roster will be free agents at season’s end, including Jacob deGrom (opt-out), Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker, Seth Lugo, Trevor May and Adam Ottavino. Even by conservative estimates, that group alone would add close to $150 million to the 2023 payroll, pushing it to the $340 million neighborhood based on the existing salary commitments on the books.

Even with Steve Cohen’s billions, the Mets will have to get creative from a financial standpoint. And much like his Atlanta counterpart, Eppler would be wise to pitch a long-term extension to Pete Alonso, who has two more arbitration years left before becoming a free agent at the end the of the 2024 season. If Alonso wants to stay in New York — and it does appear he’s embraced the city as well as the franchise — he could bite on such an offer. Based on this MVP-caliber season, however, Alonso’s price is rising by the swing and could be tough to agree on before either side is forced to do so.

Gallo, Davis raking

By the time the Aug. 2 trade deadline approached, Joey Gallo was begging for a change of scenery, and there’s little doubt he’s happier playing in SoCal than the Bronx. Gallo hit his third homer this week in 10 games for the Dodgers, and was batting .231 (6-for-26) with three walks and 12 strikeouts. Before the trade, Gallo had three homers in his previous 29 games with the Yankees, and over that span was hitting .085 (6-for-71) with 16 walks and 35 strikeouts.

“I knew the way I was hitting in New York, something was off,” Gallo told the Orange County Register. “Then mentally you start trying to do too much. Then you’re trying to combat everything ... They’ve done a good job of explaining things so far. It helps that I was in a good head space, as well.”

Up in NoCal, former Met J.D. Davis, traded along with three pitching prospects to the Giants for Darin Ruf, seems to have found the power that eluded him for most of this season in Flushing. Davis swatted his fourth homer with the Giants this week in only 14 games since the trade and was hitting .324 (12-for-37) with a 1.094 OPS. Davis hit only four home runs in his 66 games for the Mets.

“J.D. just fits in really well with our group, a great guy with an even-keeled demeanor and always confident, always ready,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler told the San Francisco Chronicle. “[The power] isn’t surprising. These are things he’s flashed and sometimes been very consistent with in his career ... The ability to hit the ball in the air is definitely something he does well.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.