{"id":373619,"date":"2025-10-11T00:04:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/373619\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T00:04:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:04:32","slug":"how-skip-schumakers-short-advisory-stint-set-him-up-perfectly-for-rangers-managerial-job-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/373619\/","title":{"rendered":"How Skip Schumaker\u2019s short advisory stint set him up perfectly for Rangers managerial job"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON – On Friday morning, a fashionable 10 minutes later than scheduled, Chris Young<\/a> strode into an underground interview room dwarfing his new manager and began the introduction of said manager, Skip Schumaker<\/a>, with a formal greeting. <\/p>\n

That was his first sentence of the day. The second started with \u201cOver the past year \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

The importance of that cannot be overlooked. Skip Schumaker, the hottest managerial candidate on the market – if he\u2019d gotten to the market – is wearing a No. 55 Rangers jersey now because of a year spent auditing the Rangers organization<\/a> from top to bottom as a senior advisor. We use \u201caudit\u201d here as if he were a student observing a class for a semester, not as if he was checking for fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cA unique opportunity to really learn an organization like this for a full year just doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d Schumaker said in his own opening remarks. \u201cI quickly learned the passion [Young] has for winning and for doing whatever he can to make this a first class organization. The alignment there is real. Our core values and what we expect every single day and making winning the most important part of our day is exactly who I am and what my family is about. And I believe in a winning culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"Rangers\u2019<\/p>\n

In other words, he knows what he\u2019s getting into. Both the optimistic version and the real one, too.<\/p>\n

Over the last year in which Schumaker served as a \u201csenior advisor\u201d to Young, he saw the big league team plenty. He\u2019d drop in on them at least once a month. He\u2019d sit in Young\u2019s suite during the game and hear Young\u2019s passion, and occasionally frustration. He got to know general manager Ross Fenstermaker similarly. <\/p>\n

It went well beyond that, though. <\/p>\n

He spent significant time at Double-A Frisco seeing top prospect Sebastian Walcott and the more advanced pitchers in the system. He spent time getting to know rising coaching star Carlos Cardoza, the manager at Frisco whose profile in the organization is only likely to grow. He talked hitting with Conner Gunn, the director of offensive initiatives and strategy. First of all, that was a real title. Second, Gunn\u2019s responsibilities are only expected to grow, too, with the club not bringing director of minor league hitting Cody Atkinson back. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about alignment, the back and forth we\u2019d have and the way we see the game, the standards and expectations,\u201d Fenstermaker said. \u201cIt all crystallized pretty early in the process for me. In many ways, he\u2019d see things I didn\u2019t. Just having that time with him throughout the course of the year sharpened the way I see the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

Settle in, Skip: See photos from Rangers’ intro news conference with new manager Skip Schumaker<\/p>\n

\"RangersView Gallery<\/p>\n

In the right hands, like, say those of a guy who stressed on Friday the Rangers organization will be the best in baseball at communication, that\u2019s a year\u2019s worth of gold and built-in credibility. Schumaker knows the pressure points and the entry points.<\/p>\n

Schumaker came to the Rangers last November after leaving the Miami Marlins job before the Marlins could formally come up with an explanation for why they\u2019d dismiss a guy who won NL Manager of the Year a year prior. But the Marlins history is littered with similar tales of the inexplicable. Anyway, Schumaker was going to take a year off from managing for a \u201creset.\u201d The Rangers already employed one of his best friends in the game, Michael Young, in an advisory role. The Rangers had just lost their designated managerial succession plan when Will Venable took over the White Sox. And they had an older manager entering the final year of his contract. <\/p>\n

It provided an opportunity to set up a role for a potential successor who could spend a year learning the organization at every level. It was further enhanced by the fact that the-then manager, Hall of Fame-bound Bruce Bochy, welcomed him to the organization thusly: \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to learning from you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat just shows you what kind of guy he is, because he wasn\u2019t going to learn anything from me, right? There\u2019s no way,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cBut it let me know what kind of leader he was and it just broke the ice. It made me feel comfortable. He let me come into some meetings. We texted throughout the season. I\u2019m very grateful for how he went about this and allowed me to learn from him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/p>\n

It would be easy to read all that and, given our predilection for conspiracy theories, wonder if the Rangers hadn\u2019t hatched some kind of nefarious plot. Sometimes the truth is just simpler. It\u2019s about staying prepared. And preparation is essential to success. Even Schumaker said that as part of his philosophy with the acronym CAPE: Communication, Alignment, Preparation, Execution<\/a>. Maybe the Rangers can have CAPE capes made for batting practice next year. Then again, maybe not. <\/p>\n

The Rangers saw the hottest potential manager in baseball come available after 2024 when the spot was still filled. They saw having Schumaker on board as both an asset for 2025 and a potential successor. They didn\u2019t have successorship conversations until Young and Bochy closed the door on running things back in 2026. <\/p>\n

But, when Young and Fenstermaker sat down with Schumaker to begin the formal interview process, it was more about manifesting pre-existing and aligned visions than it was about getting a feel for one another. It puts Schumaker ahead of being prepared for success and resolving failure than any candidate who would have been on the market. Certainly this year. Maybe any candidate the Rangers have ever considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got the same belief and alignment \u2014 that\u2019s the right word \u2014 in terms of culture,\u201d Young said. \u201cHe has an infectious energy and personality. He cares for people and a great way about him in terms of communicating that. We really have full confidence that he\u2019s the perfect person to help move us forward to strive for our next World Series championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rangers\u2019<\/a>Rangers\u2019 Skip Schumaker impresses in introduction as he lays out middle ground approach<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers tuned out Chris Woodward\u2019s overkill and no longer responded to Bruce Bochy\u2019s light touch, which is how we got to Friday\u2019s presser.<\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/a>Job No. 1 for Skip Schumaker? Helping Rangers\u2019 ailing offense find its \u2018real identity\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers\u2019 new manager was officially introduced on Friday, and he\u2019s already got a to-do list.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON – On Friday morning, a fashionable 10 minutes later than scheduled, Chris Young strode into an underground…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[8289,4805,5,3246,10546,4,149,14902,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-373619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-chris-young","12":"tag-globe-life-field","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-rangers","15":"tag-skip-schumaker","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-rangers","19":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115352611491126592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}