Skip Schumaker is trying to mold this Texas Rangers roster in his own image.
With his culture overhaul fully underway during his first spring training as the team’s manager, Schumaker joined 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) and discussed his vision for leadership in the clubhouse.
He also opened up on his thoughts on how spring training is broken up, Josh Smith’s second-half struggles and a prospect who is jumping out to him so far.
See the highlights from the interview below, edited lightly for clarity.
Rangers
So is spring training kind of broken down in your mind into the three parts, the February part, and then that early March, until it’s like, “Hey, this is kind of dress rehearsal,” or if not, how do you break down spring training?
Skip Schumaker: For some guys, it’s right away, this is your World Series. Like, you gotta go. Corey Seager doesn’t get a hit the first week in February, I think he’s gonna be okay, right? So I think it’s different for everybody. As a former player, every day meant I had to try to make a team, and so every day it didn’t matter, I had to post and be ready and show that I was ready to go, where there’s some guys on this team, that it’s a progression, it’s a slow progression. Are they ready for opening day in Philly? That’s the most important part. So I think it’s just different for everybody.
Over the last couple of years, Josh Smith will have a really good first half and then struggle in the second half. How do you help him work that out?
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Schumaker: Chase winning. That’s what you got to do as a player. I think if you’re focused on trying to get to the end with good numbers, or whatever it is your thought process. Not that I know if he’s doing this or not, but if your math, “Okay, if I have 30 more at-bats, I get 10 more hits, and these are going to be the numbers, or whatever it is,” I’m guessing that his first half, all he cared about was trying to help win the game. The second half is if all you care about is to try to win the game and not get to the finish line, and to try to get these concrete numbers to get money, or whatever it is. And I’m not suggesting that’s what he was doing, but there are players that fall into that trap, because you look at the numbers and you’re trying to get to the finish line and have a really good year or have a bad year based on the last two months. And it’s hard for young players sometimes to see that. Josh is a winning player. I know that for a fact, he has bounced around. It’s not easy to bounce around, left field, first base, second base, shortstop, third base. I mean, he has played everywhere, oh, by the way, and you got to produce. And last year he faced [Garrett] Crochet opening day, right? That’s how valuable he is. And we know that the compete is in there, because you wouldn’t face Crochet opening day as a left-handed hitter, not a lot of lefties face Crochet. But for him, that’s where we think who he is as a player. Now, how can we get more consistency for 162? Well, that’s part of our job, and that’s not only for him, but for everybody. It’s how can we be more consistent, not have these peaks and valleys as a team? It’s why we’re getting paid, and if we don’t do our job, then you’ll see another guy here. And so we’re gonna do the best we can to provide that environment for our players.
Cam Cauley, what have you seen from his approach and what’s led to his start in spring training?
Schumaker: We’ve asked him to cut down the strikeout rate and increase the walk rate. He’s done that. He’s still young, 22 years old in Double-A last year, I was 24 in Double-A. So like he’s still young. And there was a guy at[Sebastian] Walcott there that got a lot of notoriety, which he should, he’s a stud. Cam had a good year. Look at his second half numbers last year, he was really good, and he came into camp not being protected when the 30 teams could have got him because he wasn’t on the 40 man. And he came in with an edge like, “I’m going to prove you wrong,” and he has done that so far. He’s versatile. Played second, played short, played center. You’ll see him at third later on in camp. So all you want to do is provide a manager or a staff with an option, and he is doing that, and he’s opening up a lot of the guys’ eyes here that haven’t seen him before.
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Alejandro Osuna just departed to go play for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, but at the same time does that hinder what he’s doing here in spring training? It feels like he’s fighting to make this team as well.
Schumaker: You watch the WBC, just like you would watch spring training. So if I’m here and there’s a B game in Mesa, I’m watching the B game in Mesa when I get back. It’s the same thing with [Cal] Quantrill and [Robert] Garcia and Osuna. That part doesn’t change. I think the tough part is, I don’t know how much he’s going to play, so he would get more consistent at-bats here, where there, I’m not the manager there, I’m hoping he gets a lot of at-bats and continues in his progression going into the season.
The leadership, does it grow in spring training? Do you already have guys in mind that are the leaders?
Schumaker: Well, a lot of stuff that guys don’t see. It happens behind the scenes. So leadership, it depends on what you think leadership is, is it jump on a table and flip the table over when stuff is going bad? Or is it like organic conversations at a hotel bar, inside your hotel room where you guys are talking to guys? So there’s a lot of different ways I think what leadership is and what leadership looks like. It’s not always inside of a clubhouse where media or people can see what they think what leadership is, some guys, it’s fake leadership, quite honestly, because they want to be that loud voice in front of people so they can write a story. That’s not leadership either. So I think there’s more leaders in that clubhouse than maybe people think. We just didn’t have the year we wanted last year. Change happened. That’s what happens when you don’t win. And I think there’s a lot of guys that are motivated now because they didn’t win, that they’re showing that was an outlier year. We had some guys that didn’t have the years they wanted, and they want to prove that was just one of the years in their career, but this is more who they’re going to be in 2026.
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