The Texas Rangers will have a new manager this season. So will their entire minor league organization.
Each of the club’s minor league affiliates will be under the direction of a new manager this season. Four will be led by coaches who’ve already managed within the organization and two — Triple-A Round Rock and the Dominican Summer League team — were filled with external hires.
The Rangers hired Kyle Moore to manage Round Rock after the club declined to renew Doug Davis’ contract following last season. Moore, 39, previously managed four affiliates in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization and spent last season at Triple-A Iowa (Chicago Cubs) as bench coach. Rangers general manager Ross Fenstermaker said director of player development Josh Bonifay led that search.
“We felt like he possessed the right attributes and the character that fit really well with this organization,” Fenstermaker said. “He was the right fit for the player demographic that we’re going to have at Triple-A.”
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The rest of the full-season affiliates were staffed internally. Chad Comer — a Mansfield native and UT Arlington alum who previously managed High-A Hub City — will manage Double-A Frisco. Carlos Maldonado, who previously managed Low-A Hickory, replaced Comer at Hub City. Nick Jansen, who managed the Arizona Complex League team last year, will now manage Hickory. Esteban Cardoza, the DSL manager last year, will shift to the ACL.
The Rangers will have a new-looking minor league hitting coordinator staff, too, after Eric Dorton was promoted to the major league staff and Cody Atkinson’s contract was not renewed. Tyler Wolfe, a hitting coach at Frisco for the last two years, will be the lead hitting coordinator. Jared Walker will be the assistant hitting coordinator after he spent the last three seasons with the San Francisco Giants in the same role.
Pitching coordinator Jon Goebel will remain in his same role. The Rangers hired Stephanos Stroop to serve as director of pitching strategies and initiatives. Stroop previously worked as a pitching coordinator for the Seattle Mariners and will focus on player development and progression within the system. He replaced assistant director of player development Sam Niedorf, an important figure in the club’s recent organizational pitching improvements who left for the Houston Astros after last season.
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