The Texas Rangers have had more than their fair share of problems throughout 2014. The most notable of those is the many injuries to seemingly every key player. These players range from slugging first baseman Prince Fielder, who missed the entire season, to Yu Darvish, who was a lone bright spot until he went down in early September. Manager Ron Washington endured it all in hopes of getting his team healthy and back on the field ready to reclaim a contending role in 2015. That endurance, though, ended on September 5.
MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan has reported that Washington has resigned from his position as Rangers manager effective immediately.
Rangers’ Washington resigns to tend to personal matter http://t.co/wamwDYaOmP via @mlb Daniels, owners talk about Washington
— TR Sullivan (@Sullivan_Ranger) September 5, 2014
Tim Bogar, Washington’s bench coach, will finish the season as the interim manager.
In his Friday evening report, Sullivan states that Washington resigned to attend to personal matters, but the team would not disclose the exact reason. Sullivan did, though, take a moment to briefly debunk any potential rumors related to Washington’s 2009 troubles by relaying a message from Rangers general manager Jon Daniels. Sullivan wrote,
“Daniels was willing to say that it was not a repeat of what happened in 2009, when Washington tested positive for cocaine. Daniels said this personal matter did not involve substance abuse but declined to shed any other information.”
MLB.com posted an edited version of the Rangers press conference in which Daniels and other team officials discussed the resignation. Washington does not appear in the video clip, but Daniels and company stated that they understand the decision and gave Washington credit for the incredible job he did for the Rangers for past eight years.
Washington managed the Rangers from 2007 to 2014. In his eight years, he amassed a record of 664-611. He won two straight American League pennants in 2010 and 2011, winning 90 and 96 games, respectively. He was one strike away from a World Championship on two different occasions in the extra-inning Game 6 of the 2011 World Series before David Freese and Lance Berkman of the St. Louis Cardinals broke his heart — and that of the Rangers and their fans.
We cannot eliminate Washington’s 2014 record of 53-87 (.379 in 140 games through September 4) from his career totals, but if we could, that .521 winning percentage would jump to .538. Only in 2014 and 2007, his first season, did he finish below second place in the A.L. West. He missed the 2013 postseason by one game, a loss in a play-in game against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 163.
Meanwhile, Bogar (at the 2:05 mark of the video clip) credits Washington with teaching him “how to get to the Big Leagues” as a player when Washington was his manager in Triple-A. Bogar said that this was not the way he wanted to get his first chance at managing a Major League team, but now that he has the job, he will play to win. Said Bogar,
“I’m now the manager, so I got a job to do, and we have to move forward. And that’s what we’re gonna do as an organization and as a team.”
(Rangers interim manger Tim Bogar — Tom Pennington, Getty Images Sport)
Congratulations to Ron Washington on a very successful Major-League managerial career. MLB and fans everywhere wish him all the best.
TOP PHOTO CREDIT: Leon Halip, Getty Images Sport