ARLINGTON -- What is a manager’s role in revitalizing an offense?
New Rangers manager Skip Schumaker is going to have to figure that out shortly.
After having the best offense in baseball in 2023, the Rangers are coming off back-to-back seasons of offensive regression as they failed to return to the postseason to defend their World Series title.
“I think everybody is frustrated,” Schumaker said at his introductory press conference. “We’re looking forward to finding out what our real identity is as an offensive team. ... My focus is doing whatever we can to win today, whatever the game tells you to do that day. That's situational hitting. Listen, I love the three-run home run. Like, that's my favorite thing. It makes my life a lot easier. However, it's really hard to hit, so you have to do the little things sometimes to help win games. You have to win on the margins.”
And well, the Rangers did not do much hitting of home runs (175, 18th in MLB) or winning on the margins in 2025. The front office and coaching staff made moves to improve the offense in 2025. From call-ups, to lineup changes and everything in between, nothing seemed to turn things around.
When Texas dismissed offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on May 5, the offense was tied for 25th in wRC+ (80), 25th in slugging (.358), tied for 25th in batting average (.227), 28th in on-base percentage (.284), 29th in runs (113) and 29th in walk rate (6.7%).
Things got marginally better under Bret Boone, who had never held a coaching job at any level before Bochy and Young reached out about the vacancy.
By the end of the season, they ranked 25th in wRC+ (92), 26th in slugging (.381), 26th in batting average (.234), 26th in on-base percentage (.302), 22nd in runs (684) and 23rd in walk rate (8%).
“This is an extremely talented roster,” Schumacher said. “What's missing? Obviously we know about the injuries quite a bit. Every organization goes through that. What can we do to figure out how to get this thing going from day one in Spring Training. That’s the goal.
“Again, what's missing? Every organization can look at what happened and self-reflect. I think that's only natural. I can't give you these hot takes right now, I just know that, like, for me, I'm starting fresh and trying to build a staff around these players that can focus on winning the day. That's the goal.”
Schumaker said at his introductory press conference that he does hope to have some of the existing coaching staff back in 2026, but he did not clarify who that would be. So the fates of Boone, as well as hitting coaches Justin Viele and Seth Connor, are still up in the air.
But at the end of the day, what matters is Schumaker being fully aligned with whoever the hitting coaches are. That’ll be No. 1 to forming a true offensive identity.
That, combined with Schumaker’s ability to get the most out of his players, should spell improvement for the Rangers in 2026.
“Obviously, individual performances matter, right? Like, Corey Seager is a pretty good player. I think he's going to probably put up some insane numbers and be our aircraft carrier, but there's other guys around him that are needed. Throughout the lineup, we have all kinds of really good, talented players, but we all need to be pulling on the same rope.”