Cleaning house: Texas Rangers fire longtime president Jon Daniels days after canning manager

Texas Rangers owner Ray Davis sat in the press conference room Monday, listening to president Jon Daniels announce the firing of manager Chris Woodward, and paid close attention to reporters asking just why Daniels deserved to stay.

Davis left the press conference without answering questions, reflected on Daniels’ responses about his own job security, woke up Wednesday, and made the decision.

If Woodward was gone after less than four years on the job, why does Daniels deserve to stick around?

Davis telephoned Daniels on Wednesday morning and fired him, announcing that the franchise is now in the hands of GM Chris Young.

It wasn’t a surprising decision.

The rumblings have grown louder each year.

The back-to-back American League pennants were a decade ago.

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Maybe if Nelson Cruz had caught David Freese’s ball in right field on that cool October evening, it would have been different. Maybe if Rangers closer Neftali Feliz had shut down the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning, that 2011 World Series trophy would dull the pain of the past decade.

Instead, the Rangers are immersed in their sixth consecutive losing season, and the $500 million they spent on infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien hasn’t changed their fate a bit.

When you have a $140 million opening-day payroll, and $19 million of it is being paid to players no longer in the organization – primarily to Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor – something just isn’t working.

So instead of waiting until the offseason, when he had no intention to pick up the option on Daniels’ contract, Davis decided to cut ties now, letting Young handle every aspect of the baseball operations.

“Jon’s accomplishments in his 17 years running our baseball operations department have been numerous,’’ Davis said in a statement. “He and his staff put together the best teams in this franchise’s history that resulted in five playoff appearances and two American League pennants between 2010 and 2016. His impact on the growth of our player development, scouting, and analytics groups has been immense. Jon has always had the best interests of the Rangers organization in mind on and off the field and in the community.

“But the bottom line is we have not had a winning record since 2016 and for much of that time, have not been competitive in the AL West division. While I am certain we are heading in the right direction, I feel a change in the leadership of the baseball operations department will be beneficial going forward.

“Chris Young is one of the top young baseball executives in the business and in his 21 months on the job has brought welcome energy and new ideas to the organization. I am confident in Chris’ ability to lead our baseball operations with the goal of producing a consistent winner on the field.’’

Certainly, no one can accuse the Rangers of having a short leash. Daniels has been in the organization since 2002, became their GM in 2005, and president of baseball operations in 2013. It has been his show all of the way.

The Rangers have tried four different managers in the last nine years, and the trust in Daniels had eroded, with their fans loudly booing him during the Rangers’ Hall of Fame ceremony over the weekend.

“I take a lot of responsibility for our performance over the last six years,” Daniels said Monday afternoon in the managerial firing press conference. “We haven’t been good enough. Ultimately this is a team effort.

“When we were good, it wasn’t about it. We have a ways to go. As far as my personal accountability, or situation, we’ll address that down the line.”

The truth is that Daniels’ power had been stripped the past two years since the hiring of Young, anyways, but Daniels was still the boss. He was the one primarily answering questions at the press conference firing Woodward and hiring interim manager Tony Beasley.

But now, the charade is over.

It’s hard to believe it was 11 years ago in October that the Rangers were one strike away, three times during Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, from sitting atop the baseball world.

The World Series trophy was sitting in the visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium. The front office and families had gathered below. Reservations had been made nearby at Tony’s where they were going to turn the ritzy restaurant into an all-night party.

It never came.

They lost Game 6. They lost Game 7.

They never won another postseason series. And have been irrelevant since 2017.

It was time for a change.

Jon Daniels, thanks for the memories.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jon Daniels fired by Texas Rangers days after manager Chris Woodward