Getting to know Skip Schumaker, thanks to those who know the Rangers’ new manager best

When he and his wife found out their daughter would almost certainly be born with Down Syndrome, Jake Burger’s immediate response was stoic and resolute. This would not be a challenge, but a gift.

Making that decision was the easy part. Living it is something else. He had to walk back into a baseball clubhouse full of testosterone, pranks and, well, dudes and figure out how to discuss real life.

He knew immediately what to do: Go to Skip Schumaker’s office.

“I had a life-changing moment and I had no real idea on how to navigate that in the clubhouse or how to speak about it,” said Burger, the one Ranger who played for Schumaker during the incoming manager’s two-year stint with the Miami Marlins. “But we had a genuine human interaction about it. No baseball. Just talking about real life.

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“He said God doesn’t do things wrong. This beautiful girl is getting put in your life for a reason. Don’t view it as the be-all or end-all. It was just a comforting voice that made me feel even better about things. We were just there, in that moment. It was just real life.”

To those who have played with, played for and managed Schumaker, it’s a common refrain. The 45-year-old who will be introduced as the Rangers 21st manager on Friday, is a guy “you just do life with.”

We’d attribute that quote, but we’d have to attribute it twice. Both Adam Wainwright, perhaps Schumaker’s best friend in baseball, and Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, on whose staff Schumaker served in 2022, used those exact words to describe him.

But those who know him also describe a man of deep faith, an elite-level prankster, a diligent prepper (for baseball, not an apocalypse) and somebody who is unfailingly honest.

Living an authentic life

At Triple-A Memphis in 2005, Wainwright and his wife shared “a wall,” with the Schumakers, Skip and wife, Lindsey, as next-door roommates in an apartment complex. It provided a good starting point for a friendship. The Schumakers invited the Wainwrights over for dinner on an off night.

Wainwright thought it would be a good idea to show up in the one suit he owned and his wife donned her single cocktail dress.

An enduring prank war – and friendship – ensued.

Along the way, after they reached the majors, Schumaker once commissioned a giant magnetic side plate to affix to the passenger side of the mini-van Wainwright drove. It had his head photoshopped onto Richard Simmons’ body from a workout under a “Body by Waino” logo. Had a phone number, too. It was suspiciously close to Wainwright’s actual number, but, hey, that might have been a prank too far. Since it was on the passenger side, Wainwright never saw it. It wasn’t until a week later that his wife let him in on the joke.

On the road, Schumaker regularly affixed a room service hangtag on Wainwright’s door, ordering up bagels and lox (Wainwright has a visceral aversion to salmon of any kind) with the earliest possible delivery time and instructions “please knock loudly as I’m a deep sleeper.” But he never pulled the prank on a day Wainwright was scheduled to pitch. Because you respect the prank war, but you respect the game even more.

But there was more to their relationship than just pranks – Wainwright got even with two weeks worth of dirty diapers he stashed in Schumaker’s car in the middle of summer – and the non-stop old-school video games they played as young players. Wainwright, who went on to found Big League Impact, a charitable foundation that combines both action and financial commitment, and won the Roberto Clemente Award, was already a devout Christian. Schumaker was starting to lean into faith more deeply.

Wainwright gave him a Bible that first year together. In it, he wrote: “The answers to everything you need to know are in here.” Schumaker still carries that Bible with him. On a podcast with former pitcher Scott Linebrink earlier this year, Schumaker said he tries to live his life by a model of “What Would Waino Do?”

“I think he saw that I was living an authentic life,” Wainwright said. “When I screwed up, I admitted it and I asked for forgiveness. It was just living life. We were intentionally loving on guys. When you do life with people, you know what they are really about. And during the season, you are doing life with those guys. It’s really important to the way baseball works. It can’t just be on-the-field baseball. Big league dinners. Bonding away from the field. Those things are important.

“What he did in Florida with a young team was so amazing. He’s the top managerial prospect in all of baseball. It’s his presence. He’s very honest with players. He’s going to let you know what he wants. And he’s also great at giving positive reinforcement before the truth. That comes from parenting. To be a great parent is like being a great coach. I’m going to tell you what you did well, where the mistake was and why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker watches the action on the field during the first inning...

Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker watches the action on the field during the first inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Phoenix.

Ross D. Franklin / AP

Stamp of approval

In his last year in the majors, Michael Young was traded from Philadelphia to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 31, when the waivers trade deadline was still a thing. A life-long Dodgers fan, it presented a nice coda to his career.

He hustled to meet the Dodgers, who were in Colorado at the time. He got to his locker, was hustling to find some blue cleats to replace the Phillies red he’d worn all season and was trying to get everything together when he heard a thud at his feet.

Schumaker, who spent the first eight years of his career with St. Louis, had thrown down his 2011 World Series ring.

“I think I faked a laugh, but I was running hot,” Young, now a Rangers special assistant who was instrumental in making the connection to Schumaker a year ago, said with a laugh. “But we got really, really close. I was kind of coming off the bench for the first time and I really picked his brain to get answers. I came away super, super impressed about his mind. And we would both sit there and literally play manager. It was the best way to anticipate how we’d be used. We bonded as friends and as baseball minds.”

Until they were teammates, they’d only been passing acquaintances with a loose bond; both attended UC-Santa Barbara and were part of a small fraternity of Gauchos in the majors. They only spent a month together as big league teammates, but a dozen years later, Young considers Schumaker one of his best friends in the game. Even though Schumaker once did invite David Freese into a text stream of a group of 2013 Dodger teammates that existed solely to poke one another. Young responded: “I hate you,” to Freese.

“I can’t count many guys I’ve felt that strongly about,” Young said of Schumaker. “Not just as a teammate, but as a friend. We talked about family life. Our families were in similar stages. I was considering retiring and he was my go to guy to talk about life after playing.”

He still talks to Schumaker regularly about more than just the Rangers. Schumaker’s oldest son, Brody, is a TCU baseball commit and two years older than Young’s middle son, Emilio, who is also a rising baseball star on the Southern California prep circuit. Young seeks out advice on handling the monolith that is elite youth baseball.

Over the last year, they’ve talked regularly about the Rangers. Young has watched as Schumaker, in his role as senior advisor, dove in head first on the organization, learning the makeup of people in the front office, going to the minor leagues and talking to players.

“Look, he’s already good at this,” Young said, pointing to Schumaker’s NL Manager of the Year Award for 2023. “And he’s had an entire year to look at the organization, from the top down. He understands it all. He’s really well-positioned to manage this team.

“People think that managers moonlight as part-time therapists, but he also holds players to a high bar. He cares about his players a lot as people, but, if you are wearing a big-league uniform, at game time, it’s winning time. That should be the only thing on players’ minds. He feels passionately about people, but equally as passionate about baseball and managing. He’s as prepared as possible to put players in a position to succeed. It gets tossed around a lot, but he genuinely believes in the concept.”

Real life, real honesty

When Marmol was named the Cardinals manager ahead of the 2022 season and started assembling a staff, he interviewed Schumaker, who was coming off four years as a coach with San Diego.

“I knew I wanted him right away,” said Marmol, who was the youngest manager in baseball at the time. “If I had to narrow that meeting down to one word it was ‘genuine.’ I knew this was a tough gig and a tough town. You wanted people you can trust. I left that meeting knowing I could trust him.

“He’s so good at building relationships. I wanted that. I knew he was the kind of guy other organizations would want to pluck; I want guys who aspire to do more. He had a lot of those qualities. He genuinely cares. Baseball is baseball. It comes and it goes. But he wants relationships that are not transactional, but meaningful.”

Schumaker was on the staff one year. The Cardinals won the NL Central. That winter, Miami came looking for a manager. The Marlins plucked Schumaker. He took them to the playoffs. Then the Marlins did what they’ve always done in their 33-year history: They rewarded success with personnel changes at the top and a slashed payroll.

It became very clear that it would be a transactional relationship with the club. Schumaker didn’t wait around for the inevitable. He left the team just before the end of the year due to a death in the family. He informed the team he wouldn’t be back in 2025. Real life. Real honesty.

And now he’s about to start his career with the Rangers.

“Texas got the best guy on the market,” Marmol said. “He’s a real one. I have immeasurable respect for Skip. He can do this for as long as he wants.”

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