After a tough start to the season, the Texas Rangers are starting to make changes. The team announced Sunday it fired offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker after a sluggish start that has the Rangers 17-18 on the season.
“After lengthy discussions and deliberations, we feel now is the appropriate time to provide our hitters with a new voice as we pursue goals of winning the division and reaching the postseason,” Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, said in a statement. “We are extremely grateful to Donnie for all that he has accomplished here with the Rangers.”
The move came after Texas beat the Seattle Mariners 8-1 at home on Sunday, avoiding a sweep against its AL West rival. But the past few weeks have seen a smattering of disappointing results for the Rangers, who also lost to the Mariners 13-1 and 2-1 and had three one-run losses in a row last week.
After short stints with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, Ecker joined Texas’ hitting staff in 2021, helping the team win the World Series in 2023.
The team said Ecker’s replacement and “the structure of the club’s hitting staff” will be addressed sometime this week.
Texas’ early-season problems have extended to its pitching efforts: The Rangers are tied for the sixth-best ERA in the league at 3.44 and have one of the lowest WHIPs at 1.17, as well. And yet the team has lost seven of its last 10.
The issues with the Rangers are all about offense: Their .228 collective batting average is the sixth-lowest in baseball. Texas also has also racked up the second-fewest runs and RBI, beating out only the Colorado Rockies.
At this point in the season, the Rangers are fourth in the AL West, four games back from the division-best Mariners and only sitting above the slightly hopeless Los Angeles Angels. Clearly Texas’ front office is seeing the same problem and is hoping a coaching change will reinvigorate the Rangers’ offense — before it’s too late.
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