LAS VEGAS -- Skip Schumaker’s 2027 staff is now complete.
The Rangers announced on Wednesday that Tommy Joseph will be joining the staff as Major League hitting coach alongside lead hitting coach Justin Viele and assistant hitting coach Eric Dorton. Joseph is replacing Alex Cintron, who stepped away from the big league staff on his own accord, but will remain within the organization.
A second-round pick by the Giants in the 2009 MLB Draft, Joseph appeared in a pair of Major League seasons (2016-17) with the Phillies, combining to hit .247 with a .757 OPS and 116 RBIs across 249 career games. Though he did not appear for the big league club, Joseph logged 91 games with Rangers’ affiliates Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock in 2018, batting .284/.351/.533 with 21 home runs and 70 RBIs.
Joseph has two years of experience as an MLB assistant hitting coach with the Mariners (2024) and Orioles (2025), though he has coached a number of years in the Minors as the lead hitting instructor for Single-A St. Lucie (Mets) in 2021, also serving as hitting coach for Double-A Binghamton (Yankees) in 2022 and High-A Eugene (Giants) in 2023.
Joseph joins a hitting group that has been oft-criticized over the last few seasons. Offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker was let go in May 2025 and his replacement, Bret Boone, did not return in ‘26, either.
Under Viele and Cintron in 2026, the Rangers were tied for eighth in wRC+ (102), tied for 21st in slugging percentage (.396), tied for 18th in batting average (.242), tied for 14th in on-base percentage (.317), 25th in runs (673) and tied for 16th in walk rate (8.7%).
The team-wide numbers were slightly up from 2025, but not exponentially.
“Players love JV,” said president of baseball operations Chris Young of Viele. “He's got such a care factor. He's so good at really connecting with every player. He gives them everything he has. He is so committed to the players. He wears it hard when they don't perform. He's very well-respected, highly regarded. I think he's done very good things. It didn't perfectly translate to the run production we needed last year, but there were improvements offensively and the overall performance. Now we've got to translate that to our ability to score runs as a collective group. My hope is that it'll lead to good results next year.”
So why did those so-called "offensive improvements" not lead to run production?
“Number one is we didn't hit with the bases loaded,” Young said. “We left a lot of scoring opportunities on the table with the bases loaded. We were a historically bad offense when the bases were loaded. Oftentimes bases loaded leads to crooked numbers and we just weren't good in those situations. I think there's some things that we can do differently in terms of the way we approach those at-bats.”
He’s not wrong. With the bases loaded in 2026, the Rangers ranked 30th in slugging (.304) and OPS (.549), 29th in on-base percentage (.245) and RBIs (77) and 26th in batting average (.226).
A hitting coach or two can only do so much. The players also need to rise to the occasion.
“Some of it's personnel-related for us as well to make sure that we have the depth and the quality of hitters that we need to be successful,” Young said. “We've got work to do as a front office to address that.”