It’s not hard to find a reason for the Rangers’ midsummer firing spree: The team is looking at a sixth consecutive losing season, which does not exactly scream “job security,” especially not for a manager or a top executive. And so it was not entirely surprising that skipper Chris Woodward was axed Monday and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels followed Wednesday.
But it is hard to find a reason for the timing.
These are the kind of moves you typically expect on the first day of the offseason. They represent the end of one era and the beginning of another. Sometimes they come a bit earlier to make a statement—late, or maybe mid-September. But as early as August? It feels rather jarring. It only feels more so when you remember that Daniels announced Woodward’s dismissal, answering questions about the direction of the team at a press conference, presumably under the belief his own job was safe, only to get fired himself two days later. And it gets weirder still if you zoom into the particulars of the team’s situation.
