Ron Washington, Manager, Texas Rangers

December 9, 2006 @ 16:00:00

By Joshua Ellis
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

Nov. 6 the Texas Rangers announced that former Oakland Athletics infield and third-base coach Ron Washington would accept an offer to manage the team. Washington replaces Buck Showalter, who had managed the team for four seasons.

Who is Washington?

As a player Washington has more than 1,600 professional games under his belt. Of those, 1,049 came at the minor-league level, but for the last eight seasons of his career, Washington was in the major leagues full-time. During his career, Washington played every infield position, even one game at first base. He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros during his major-league career. Overall, Washington was a career .261 hitter at that level, but he was more known for his fielding ability.

Washington's playing career ended in 1989 and his coaching career began just two years later. Tidewater, then a Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, gave Washington his first coaching job. After two years with Tidewater, Washington took over as the manager of the Class A Columbia Bombers. In two seasons there, he compiled a record of 123-153. The following year, Washington returned to the Mets' Triple-A affiliate, which was now Norfolk. He would spend one more season with Norfolk before he landed a job with the Athletics in 1996.

Washington was hired as the first-base coach for Oakland and a year later was moved to coach third base, where he would spend the next 10 seasons. In addition to coaching third base, Washington was the infield coach for the Athletics and is well-known for the success of three of his players.

During his career in Oakland, third baseman Eric Chavez has won six Gold Glove Awards, one of which Chavez gave to Washington. It was signed "Wash, not without you," an acknowledgment of Washington's influence on Chavez. Washington is also credited with molding former Athletics and current Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada into a fine defensive player.

In addition, as mentioned in the book "Moneyball," by Michael Lewis, Oakland general manager Billy Beane brought in catcher Scott Hatteberg to play first base for the Athletics in 2002. Hatteberg had never played the position in his major-league career, but thanks to the teaching of Washington, Hatteberg took on the nickname the "Pickin' Machine" because of his great defensive play in his time with the A's. Hatteberg continues to be a fine defensive first baseman with the Cincinnati Reds today.

The move to Texas is the first managerial position for Washington in the major leagues. Washington is considered to be an old-fashioned baseball mind; he opposed Beane's new-aged statistically driven approach to the game and player evaluation.

Washington's Impact 

The Rangers have not finished higher than third in the American League's West division since they won it in consecutive years in 1998 and 1999. Last season, the Rangers were 80-82 and finished in third place in the division, 13 games behind the Athletics. Obviously, there is a lot of room for improvement for a team that finished the year sixth in the AL in hitting (.278), tied for eighth in ERA (4.60) and tied for sixth in fielding percentage (.984) in the major leagues.

Washington will have an opportunity to improve the Rangers for the 2007 season. With his renowned ability to make fielders better, especially infielders, the Rangers should be an improved fielding team next season. Although the Rangers were sixth in hitting last season, they lost several key players to free agency that could hurt their offensive production in 2007. The Rangers lost slugging outfielder Carlos Lee (Astros), outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and infielder Mark DeRosa (Chicago Cubs) to other teams this offseason. However, they still have great hitters in first baseman Mark Teixeira, shortstop Michael Young and third baseman Hank Blalock. The team also has veteran outfielder Brad Wilkerson and, who had an injury-plagued 2006, as well as former Mets prospect Victor Diaz and free-agent outfielder Frank Catalanotto (Toronto Blue Jays) to compete for time. The team has already penciled Catalanotto into one of the top two spots in the order. The team brought in journeyman outfielder Marlon Byrd for depth. Inexperienced outfielder Freddy Guzman and touted prospect Nelson Cruz should have the chance to land a roster spots as well.

The Rangers' pitching staff took a hit this offseason as well. Starters Adam Eaton (Philadelphia Phillies) and Kip Wells (St. Louis Cardinals) were lost to other teams. However, the team retained starting pitcher Vicente Padilla, who agreed to a three-year, $33.75 million contract. One area in whicb Washington could prove especially useful is the courting of his former player, starting pitcher Barry Zito. Since the Rangers have fewer financial constraints than the Athletics, they may be able to take a chance on more free agents to make their team better. A lefty, Zito has one of the best curveballs in the league and a career ERA of 3.55 to go along with a Cy Young Award. Washington was with the Athletics for Zito's entire career, so that may help the Rangers add the big-name pitcher to be the ace of their pitching staff. Recent reports stated that the club had offered Zito a six-year, $102 million contract.

The Bottom Line

Overall, Washington brings a new perspective to a team that hasn't had much success since the 1999 season. If pitching and defense win championships, then the fielding expertise that Washington possesses could have the Rangers in fine position in 2007. With improved infield defense, pitchers like Millwood, who finished tied for 13th among all ERA qualifiers with a 1.29 ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio last year, would benefit. Padilla could also expect improved results; he finished 21st, at 1.17. The addition of Zito would probably help too.

As a rookie manager, Washington will lead a team with a lot of young hitting talent. It will be interesting to see how a first-year manager who describes himself as a "player's manager" can handle some of the team's raw young players and see if he can mold them in Arlington. If the Rangers can acquire more talent before the season starts, they could contend for the AL West title. If the Rangers don't recoup some of the talent they lost to free agency, then they could be bottom-feeders once again and miss the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.

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Joshua Ellis
Joshua has been a KFFL contributor since 2006.

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