FRIDAY: Banister’s contract is a three-year deal with a club option for a fourth season, reports Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter link).
THURSDAY, 6:03pm: The Rangers have announced the hiring.
10:34am: The Rangers will hire Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister as their next manager, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link).
The Rangers interviewed a wide variety of candidates for the position following Ron Washington’s abrupt resignation. Interim manager Tim Bogar and Indians bullpen coach Kevin Cash were announced by the team as finalists in addition to Banister. However, Texas also interviewed internal candidates Mike Maddux and Steve Buechele, as well as the following external candidates: Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, White Sox third base coach Joe McEwing and former big leaguer Alex Cora (who currently is an analyst for ESPN).
Banister’s hiring will be bittersweet for the Pirates organization, as while they’re undoubtedly happy to see him receive the opportunity, the hiring will also bring to a close a tenure with Pittsburgh that has lasted 29 seasons. Banister was a 25th-round draft pick by the Bucs in 1986 and spent seven years with them as a minor leaguer (he also received one plate appearance in the Majors in 1991). Banister managed for five seasons in the minors with Pittsburgh and has also spent three seasons as the Major Legaue field coordinator and eight as a minor league field coordinator. He was named the team’s bench coach in 2010 and also served as an interim pitching coach in 2008.
Last year, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times penned an excellent article on Banister’s extraordinary journey to his then-position with the Pirates. A bone cancer survivor in high school, Banister underwent seven operations on his left ankle. As a junior college player in his native Texas, Banister got behind the plate on a day he was not scheduled to catch because a Yankees scout was on-hand to watch him. Tragedy ensued, as Banister was left paralyzed from the neck down following a home-plate collision. He underwent spinal surgery and lost nearly 90 pounds before leaving the hospital, but he recovered, returned to the field after a year and ended up being selected in the 25th round of the ’86 draft.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Good move Rangers. I like this hire.
I thought Bogar would have gotten it and personally its who i would have gone for.
Honestly, I liked all 3 finalists (Banister, Bogar and Kevin Cash). I would expect Bogar and Cash to be contenders for other jobs down the road.
Absolutely the right choice… Texas ties, and a good knowledge of stats, and farm systems.
As long as he doesn’t expect his players to match his career MLB batting average, Banister will do fine.
I have never read or heard a bad thing said about Banister during his entire tenure in the Bucco organization. Clint Hurdle likes him a lot, and I would not be surprised if Clint put in his 2 cents to the Ranger organization, since Hurdle coached in Texas before coming to Pittsburgh. Thanks for your service in Pittsburgh, Jeff, and best of luck in Texas.
Back when they Pirates were losing a lot– think the John Russell era or thereabouts– a couple of the more hateful Pirate fans out there commented that he got his position not because of competence, but because he was an organizational yes-man and Front Office lackey.
I remember the vitriol distinctly; it was quite depressing to read what some of my fellow Pirate fans managed to convince themselves.
As a Pirates fan, this hurts. Banister is a great guy and a huge part of the clubhouse. He really deserves the shot, but I will hate to see him go.
Agreed. If the Bucs are smart, they will spend some time and money deciding on a replacement for Banister as bench coach, and give Hurdle a whole lot of input. I’m really happy for Banister.
Good thing MLBTR doesn’t do a manager’s contest like they do with Free Agents.
I had Banister going to the Astros, Joe McEwing to D-Backs and Steve Buechele to the Rangers. I can honestly say I’ve never heard one negative thing about Banister in my life (both as a fan and someone who worked in baseball).
Wow after reading his bio, it begs the question, “What’s your excuse?”
My excuse is that I have virtually no athletic talent!
Good article. There a spelling error “Major Legaue”
I liked all the final 3 candidates. I think he’ll do fine.
This was a guy I wanted the Diamondbacks to take a look at, though I wasn’t convinced a team that is in such a mess as Arizona is right now could have lured away a guy like Bannister with his incredibly long Pittsburgh tenure.
At least our manager owns a career 469 OPS+…
Now once the ws is over the rangers will get to work on their off-season plans for next year and their first job is getting an outfielder and a dh and the best hitters for those are nick markiasia and victor martinez
I would say first step should be, fixing the 3-4-5 spots in the rotation. Counting on Perez and Harrison to return at 100% from injury would be foolish. The combonation last year of Lewis, Martinez, Tepesch, Baker, Ross, Scheppers, Mikolas, Saunders, Bonilla, Williams, and Irwin is/was not good enough for a team with playoff hopes. Two quality SP’s are needed at the very least. Try to “patch work” the 5th rotation spot (with the guys above that are still on the team) and skip that guy whenever the schedule allows (at least until Perez returns).
Roster creation/free agent signings are not the managers job, they are the GM’s job.
Neither one of them mentioned it would be Bannister’s job. Did you read their comments?
Reading this guy’s resume is impressive. If he has good interpersonal skills to go along with it then the Rangers have done well. I’m glad the Rangers didn’t go for the “name” type with no managing experience.
I just think the rangers will have a good off-season and they will but in order to do they must get some starting pitching in that rotation. The best starting pitcher in the free agency market that I can think of is Jon Lester and James shields send both guys are quality starters and the rotation would look like this:
Yu Darvish
Jon Lester
James Shields
Derek Holland
Nick Tepesceh (or Edison Volquez)