Rangers stay in house, hire Skip Schumaker as manager

Former National League Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker is the Texas Rangers' new skipper.

The team announced the hire Friday evening after president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters earlier in the day that Schumaker was his "focus" in the job search.

Schumaker, 45, was serving as a senior adviser to the Rangers, and Young said he had not talked to any external candidates.

"We are thrilled to announce this promotion and have Skip leading this club in the dugout," Young said in a statement. "Over his past year as a senior adviser to our baseball operations group, Skip has proven to be driven, passionate and thorough in everything he does. He has a winning spirit and energy, and we are fortunate that someone so highly regarded in the industry has agreed to become our manager."

In his first managerial job, Schumaker led the Marlins to a 146-178 record over two seasons. When Miami finished 84-78 and earned a National League wild-card berth in 2023, Schumaker was named NL Manager of the Year in his rookie season.

After Miami went 62-100 in 2024, he asked the Marlins to remove the team option for 2025 from his contract, and the team complied. He accepted the job with Texas as an adviser to Young.

Before entering the coaching ranks, Schumaker played 11 major league seasons (2005-15) with three teams -- the St. Louis Cardinals (2005-12), Los Angeles Dodgers (2013) and Cincinnati Reds (2014-15) -- and had a career average of .278 with 28 homers and 284 RBIs in 1,149 games.

Schumaker replaces Bruce Bochy, who came out of retirement to lead the Rangers to their only World Series championship in 2023. On Monday, the team and Bochy, 70, mutually decided he would not return as manager next season, though Bochy was offered a front-office role.

The Rangers finished 81-81 in 2025 and were in the American League wild-card race until late in the season. Texas was nine games over .500 before losing 11 of its last 13 games.

--Field Level Media