Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker walks to the dugout after making player substitutions during a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
LM Otero/AP Photo/LM Otero
ST. LOUIS —June is reunion month for Skip Schumaker.
And, you know how reunions go. There are some people you can’t wait to see for the first time in years and some, well, you remember why you haven’t seen them. Which is kind of how the month will go.
It started in St. Louis on Monday, where the Rangers manager Schumaker played most of his major league career (yeah, yeah, yeah, including 2011) and took the final steps toward becoming a major league manager. Three weeks later, it gets awkward when the Rangers visit Miami, where he took the Marlins to the playoffs in his first year as a manager, won NL Manager of the Year and where he left a year later.
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Either way, he’d like to treat both the same this month: Some handshakes, an occasional hug and a lot of wins. The latter is just the norm for Schumaker if you know how hot his intensity burns.
“There are guys that leave in free agency or who are traded that, you know, want to show the old team up,” Schumaker said. “When the Cardinals traded me to Los Angeles and I came to town, I wanted to beat them. But that’s a much different feeling.
“I still want to win, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t really need extra motivation,” Schumaker said. “It’s kind of how I’m wired.”
At least at game time.
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But Monday afternoon was all about the warm and fuzzies. When he arrived at Busch Stadium, he immediately shipped over to Cardinals manager Oli Marmol one of the ’90s-themed boy band concert T-shirts the Rangers gave out last week as a joke. Marmol, who hired Schumaker as a bench coach for the first time in 2022, wore the shirt through batting practice. It got a laugh from Schumaker.
And the welcome here is always warm for him, considering he played on two World Series teams in 2006 and, yes, 2011 during his eight seasons with the Cardinals. The reception is warm when he returned, like in 2024, when the Marlins were the Cardinals’ guest for the home opener. The visiting manager got a standing ovation from the crowd. That’s unusual.
Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker high fives players in the dugout before a baseball game against the Athletics at Globe Life Field on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Arlington.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
On Monday, there was no Skip Schumaker tribute video, but there were highlights from the 2011 World Series played on the video board before the game. Just a coincidence, surely.
Even he demurred when asked about any specific memories of his time with the Cardinals.
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“Not wearing this jersey,” he said with a laugh.
Then he continued: “There was just a lot of winning and a lot of good people in my career that I was fortunate to be around. A Hall of Fame manager, a bunch of Hall of Fame players, and then Hall of Fame people. Yeah, it was definitely fun to win the World Series. It’s a great memory to have. But at the end of the day, it’s about the people, and it still holds true today.”
And, for the record, he said the 2006 World Series was the one he was talking about.
But the Cardinals formed him. Drafted in 2001 in the fifth round, he would spend 12 years in the organization, winning two rings, and then return as a coach. He was steeped in the “Cardinal Way,” having been issued the handbook as soon as he joined New Jersey in what was then the rookie level New York-Penn League. There were lots of details that may seem trivial today, about dress codes and times.
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It also, however, described fundamental, well-rounded baseball, a brand of the game he’d like the Rangers to adopt. They showed the ability to do it during a weekend sweep of Kansas City.
“I think a lot of what the Cardinals minor league system did was help you prepare to win for Tony La Russa,” Schumaker said. “It didn’t matter who you were, you were going to learn how to bunt. Didn’t matter who you were, you’re going to learn how to steal a base. Didn’t matter what, they were preparing you.
“I think what I remember also about the Cardinals, is they had coaches that didn’t run away from tough conversations with superstars or rookie players. That’s the staff that I wanted to hire in Miami and that we’ve hired and implemented here.”
Ah, Miami. It started out so well. He managed the Marlins to an 83-79 record in 2023, the first 162-game season since 2009 in which they finished better than .500. It was also the first time they reached the playoffs in a 162-game season since 2003.
It all seemed to be going swimmingly. But the Marlins decided to change direction after the season, pushed out general manager Kim Ng, who had hired Schumaker, and set up an untenable situation there, putting many of his coaching hires in jeopardy, as well. He chose not to return long before he stepped away a couple of days before the 2024 season ended.
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He said he will not take hard feelings with him when the teams meet at loanDepot Park June 22-24. But he also chose his words carefully.
“It was my first chance someone gave me to manage,” Schumaker said. “That organization and that ownership, which is still the same ownership group, had to sign off on it. [Owner] Bruce Sherman always was great to me and my family. I don’t have a negative thing to say about that.
“And there’s some really good people there still, so some former players, current players that you know we had that I’m looking forward to see, but yeah, it was a really good experience for me, and I’m grateful for someone giving me the first shot.”
It also helped him grow. Now in his second job and nearly two years removed from the situation, he acknowledged having some regrets of his own there.
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“I could have been better at trying to understand where the organization wanted to be, what they wanted this thing to look like in two or three years,” Schumaker said. “With Kim, we were about trying to ‘win now.’ The next year we traded [Luis] Arraez after something like 30 games. They [the front office] saw a vision they wanted to implement. I can totally appreciate that. I think I could have done a better job of asking more questions and understanding what that vision looks like moving forward.”
They are two steps in a career that has brought him to the Rangers and better prepared him for his second opportunity as a big league manager. And now just like everybody would love to do at reunions, he’s got a chance to show off what he’s learned from the experiences.