{"id":373933,"date":"2025-10-11T04:44:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T04:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/373933\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T04:44:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T04:44:35","slug":"job-no-1-for-skip-schumaker-helping-rangers-ailing-offense-find-its-real-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/373933\/","title":{"rendered":"Job No. 1 for Skip Schumaker? Helping Rangers\u2019 ailing offense find its \u2018real identity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 The latest fold in the history of the Texas Rangers<\/a> franchise is underscored by familiarity. <\/p>\n

The Rangers got their guy a year before they got their guy<\/a>, if you catch our drift, and now plan to reap the benefits of his extended exposure to what works and what doesn\u2019t work within the organization he\u2019ll now manage. <\/p>\n

The new boss has got a pretty good beat on it because of that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody is frustrated,\u201d Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Friday in his introductory news conference at Globe Life Field<\/a>. \u201cMy conversations with the players so far this offseason, [we\u2019re] looking forward to finding out what our real identity is as an offensive team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Former<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s affair was jovial, hopeful and included an exchange of a jersey, scattered jokes and decrees of expected victory. It couldn\u2019t end without a brief discussion of the lackluster offense<\/a> that has now kept the Rangers from playoff contention for consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young emphasized the importance of a sustainable offensive philosophy at the club\u2019s end-of-year debrief<\/a> earlier this month. Schumaker, whom the Rangers hired to an advisory role last winter and officially promoted to manager<\/a> just hours after Young spoke, is in alignment. <\/p>\n

\u201cCorey Seager is a pretty good player,\u201d Schumaker said of the team\u2019s superstar shortstop. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to probably put up some insane numbers, and you know, be our aircraft carrier. But we all need to be pulling on the same rope in the direction of the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young acknowledged a dearth of \u201cteam connectivity and team-oriented at-bats\u201d at times on offense last season. The Rangers hit a below-average number of sacrifice flies (40), ranked bottom-five in sacrifice hits (10), sacrifice bunt attempts (20) and productive outs (132). They saw an average number of pitches per plate appearance and, with runners on base, they saw even fewer pitches. <\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/p>\n

Rangers new Manager Skip Schumaker, center, poses for a photo with President of Baseball Operations Chris Young, left, and General Manager Ross Fenstermaker during a press conference on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Globe Life Field in Arlington. <\/p>\n

Angela Piazza \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

That can reduce a team\u2019s margin for error with men on base and limit runs when a base hit is followed by a three-pitch strikeout or an unproductive at-bat. It can also drain a team\u2019s ability to pounce on pitchers when \u2014 to borrow a phrase from former manager Bruce Bochy \u2014 the baton isn\u2019t properly passed from one batter to another. See the team\u2019s .703 OPS with runners in scoring position, the fifth-worst in baseball, for proof. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is different,\u201d Schumaker said, \u201cbut having an identity \u2014 and not just having individuals throughout the team and the lineup \u2014 but having a real identity of \u2018this is what we\u2019re doing today to beat that team or that starter\u2019 is really the goal.”<\/p>\n

Identity is the pertinent word. The Rangers believed last season that theirs could be one centered upon an ability to slug and mash fastballs. Their slugging percentage was the fifth-worst in baseball, their average vs. fastballs was the fourth-worst, and it created a crisis that took the Rangers half of the season to overcome in a marginal way. <\/p>\n

The Marlins, two seasons ago when Schumaker led them to the playoffs<\/a> and was named National League Manager of the Year for his efforts, relied upon contact (where they led baseball in average) and an average to above-average capacity to hit situationally. They also took the fifth most bases \u2014 which means they advanced on fly balls, passed balls or other similar avenues \u2014 among all NL teams. <\/p>\n

Schumaker reiterated that the offense\u2019s focus will be on \u201cwhatever we can to win today\u201d from a big-picture perspective. The small-picture perspective might help with that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the three-run home run,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cThat\u2019s my favorite thing. It makes my life a lot easier. However, it\u2019s really hard to hit, so you have to do the little things to help win games. You have to win on the margins. The base running helps you win games because that helps you score runs. I\u2019m guessing the hitting coach would love for base running to be a strength of ours because that equates to runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"RangersView Gallery<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @McFarland_Shawn<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Skip<\/a>How Skip Schumaker\u2019s short advisory stint set him up perfectly for Rangers\u2019 managerial job<\/a><\/p>\n

Schumaker came to the Rangers last November after leaving a Miami Marlins job where he won National League Manager of the Year in 2023.<\/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

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 \u2014 The latest fold in the history of the Texas Rangers franchise is underscored by familiarity. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[8289,4805,5,3246,384,10546,4,149,14902,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-373933","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-corey-seager","13":"tag-globe-life-field","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-skip-schumaker","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-rangers","19":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115353712423136004","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373933","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=373933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}