How Bad was Chris Woodward at managing the Texas Rangers?
The Texas Rangers are in the World Series this year. Bruce Bochy turned this team around for the better in his first season in Texas, despite a horrendous 2022 season. Former manager Chris Woodward led the 2022 team that went 68-94 which led to Woodward being fired.
So just how bad was Woodward at managing the Rangers? Besides being an absolute crybaby, Woodward never found success with the Rangers, especially in his final season.
Let’s back up. Woodward became manager of the Rangers to begin the 2019 season. The team went 78-84, 11 more wins than the year prior. There wasn’t much talent on the roster, so we’ll give him a pass.
The 2020 season was screwed up all around. The Rangers finished 22-38 and last place in the AL West, but again, a screwed up season.
But we aren’t giving Woodward a pass for that season. He went old-head mode on Fernando Tatis Jr. for “breaking the unwritten rules.” *Eye roll*
During that 2020 season, the Padres were beating the Rangers 10-3 in the eighth inning. Tatis Jr. had the bases loaded with a 3-0 count and swung at a 92 mph fastball down the pipe for a grand slam. Woodward took offense to that and claimed there isn’t a place for that in baseball.
“There’s a lot of unwritten rules that are constantly being challenged in today’s game,” Woodward told reporters. “I didn’t like it, personally. You’re up by seven in the eighth inning; it’s typically not a good time to swing 3–0. It’s kind of the way we were all raised in the game. But, like I said, the norms are being challenged on a daily basis, so—just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right.”
Via MLB.com
Instead of crying, maybe don’t give up 14 total runs and allow the Padres to smoke you.
It’s not the 1970s anymore, the game has changed for the better (for the most part.)
We can skip over the 2021 season. The Rangers finished 60-102, but again, not much talent nor expectations. Last year was a crap show. To start, the Rangers spent over $600 million in the offseason–infielders Marcus Semien and Corey Seager were more than half of that , and expectations to make the playoffs were high.
Woodward also brought out the binky again to cry over the Yankees and infielder Gleyber Torres . Back in May of that season, Torres hit an opposite-field walk-off homer against the Rangers. Woodward pretty much said Torres got lucky because Yankee Stadium is a “little league park.”
Now, Yankee Stadium is small and a lot of home runs are a bit lucky. But after the statcast numbers came out, Woodward just sounded like an idiot.
Outside of that, the Rangers were terrible in 2022. Before Woodward was fired in August of that season, the Rangers were 6-24 in one-run games and had a minus-2 run differential. They went 98-94, finishing fourth in the AL West.
Woodward was on the younger side of MLB managers, so seeing him get so butthurt so often was honestly surprising. Nowadays, he’s working for the Los Angeles Dodgers as a special assistant in the front office.
The Rangers made a good decision. Bochy is a future Hall of Fame manager and completely turned this organization around in a year. Now, they’re only four wins away from their first-ever World Series title, and don’t have a diva managing the roster.
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