The Texas Rangers have hired manager Bruce Bochy, ending the three-time World Series champion’s short retirement to lead a club that is coming off six straight losing seasons.
Posted at 2:11 p.m.
The team made the surprise announcement on Friday, just two weeks after the end of its season.
Bochy, 67, hasn’t coached in Major League Baseball since 2019, when he retired after 13 seasons and three World Series victories with the San Francisco Giants. His first conquest had also been successful at the expense of Rangers, in five games in 2010.
Rangers general manager Chris Young played under Bochy for the San Diego Padres in 2006.
Bochy has won 2,003 games: 951 in San Diego, from 1995 to 2006, as well as 1,052 with the Giants, from 2007 to 2019.
The Rangers fired Chris Woodward, who was in his fourth season at the helm, on Aug. 15, two days before president of baseball operations and ex-general manager Jon Daniels was also released. Rangers finished the season at 68-94, eight wins more than the previous season, but “about halfway to our expectations,” Young said.
The Rangers went 17-31 under interim manager Tony Beasley, a longtime third base coach. Beasley was also interviewed for the job.