Q&A with Rangers GM Jon Daniels
Amidst a busy week in which he was interviewing and hiring coaching candidates and beginning to crank up the hot stove for off-season moves, Rangers GM Jon Daniels generously gave me a few hours of his time to visit about his first three years on the job.
We talked about what he’s learned, the people he’s assembled to help build one of the game’s most powerful farm systems, and how he see’s the the next few years shaping up.
It was a very illuminating and frank discussion that, I hope, will give you better insight into how the Texas Rangers operate.
MJH: After three years on this job, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned. And I’m talking about things that you know now that you didn’t know then.
JD: Mostly, I think it’s been fine tuning the decision making process. There can be paralysis by analysis with so much information coming in at times. I’ve become more comfortable with the people and the system in place and have a better handle on what I’m hearing from them. Continuity in the organization is critical - critical - to that. We’ve been fortunate with ownership to give us the ability to get the right people and keep them here all throughout the system. You look at all of the good organizations - the organizations that sustain success - and they’ve got that continuity. When it comes time to make decisions, there’s an openness. Arguments are good. Constructive. Honest.
MJH: Is there a GM — past or present other than the guy who brought you along, John Hart — who you see as your role model and if so, what have you learned from him and how has that influenced you in this job?
JD: I can think of four guys right away: Pat Gillick, Doug Melvin, Mark Shapiro and Theo [Epstein]. With Pat, obviously you have to admire the way he builds an organization. He’s a big proponent of continuity. He knows his people. Pat’s a guy who knows where all of his scouts are on any given day. He knows their wives first names. He knows their kids. He makes sure that everyone in the organization knows that they are valuable and that’s been a key to his success wherever he goes. Doug: the way he carries himself. He’s probably about the most respected GM in the game. His honesty. He’s direct. Straight shooter. I hope to be similar to those guys.
MJH: It would be malpractice for me to sit down with you and not ask about how Nolan Ryan’’s Presidency of he club has changed the way you do your job, so let’s get into that for a minute. What’’s changed for you since February when Nolan came on board?
JD: Not much. That’s a credit to him, really. He’s another intelligent, experienced baseball man involved and contributing to our progress. The biggest difference is having a baseball guy in senior management where previously baseball and business were separated. Our relationship is growing and that’s a focus. It’s grown over this year and continues to. Clearly, Nolan understands the value of continuity and stability of relationships. He’s definitely a relationship guy. He’s still close with the scout that signed him 40-some years ago. Nolan and I are on the same page about how to go about building an organization: from within. We have a vision that being a Texas Ranger is going to mean something special.
MJH: As a preface to this question, I’ll tell you that several years ago, I saw Grady Fuson in a tirade on the back fields in Surprise complaining about Buck Showalter’s complaining about the players he was drafting. A couple of years later, I heard Dom Chiti remark in front of myself and others as a player walked by “there’s a signing bonus we’ll never get back.” It all just seemed really dysfunctional. That sort of thing seems to have been eliminated from the system and everyone appears to be on the same page. Your scouting and development team comes from all over the place. You have holdovers from the Doug Melvin / Reid Nichols era like Mike Grouse, Kip Fagg and John Lombardo. Grady Fuson’s choice as scouting director, Ron Hopkins is still here. Guys long-connected to John Hart such as Rick Adair, Mel Didier and Tom Giordano, and then your own guys like A.J. Preller and Scott Servais. How do you keep all of these people on the same page when it comes to organizational philosophy in scouting, drafting and developing talent?
JD: First off, it never made sense to me that there could be factions in the organization, but there was some dysfunction. I didn’t pick sides because in my mind there weren’t any sides to pick. My loyalty was to John Hart because John Hart was the G.M. He was the man in charge and that was it. But I was close with Grady too and we’re still friendly. For whatever reason I was able to maintain relationships with everyone involved and that probably helped me.
What we’ve been able to do here recently is get everyone in the organization completely committed to only one thing and that is to make the Texas Rangers organization as successful as it can be. It comes down to communication, respect and checking egos at the door. The people here now, whether they started off with Doug or John or if they have a connection to Grady or if I brought them in, are people who think about ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’
We get everyone together a couple of times a year. The scouts and the developmental folks have regular contact. They aren’t in separate camps. We’re far from perfect in this regard but we’re getting better. We flooded our minor league affiliates with our own scouts this year. Scott Servais and A.J. Preller have a strong relationship. An example of what we’re trying to build is Mike Anderson moving from pitching coach to pro scout — that has a lot to do with the relationship of the heads of those departments. Scott had a couple of years of experience as a scout so he can appreciate how the other side operates. Hoppy is a big part of that too. He’s all about the kids and the organization. He’s a scout’s scout. Everyone is pulling in the same direction, including the big league club. I mean, we joke about this sometimes, but if for some reason we were out west and the big league club couldn’t post and we told Wash that we needed him to take on Anaheim with the Bakersfield club, he’d embrace it and expect to win. That’s what we’re trying to get to — everyone on the same page with a level of trust in each other.
MJH: Speaking of Scott Servais, what made you target him to take over running the farm system. I know he’d been a roving instructor and a scout, but he hadn’t managed or been in a director position.
JD: I actually didn’t know Scott in Colorado, but [assistant GM] Thad [Levine] did. We were thinking of him for a couple of different positions. He’s like a Mike Scioscia or Joe Girardi: a smart catcher, high intensity, integrity, serious — the didn’t need much seasoning to become good at what they do. We didn’t figure it would take Scott long to get into it either. When he came in to talk to us it was very clear that his passion was to mold and develop players and to build a system, teach the game the right way. So there we were with a young GM with not a lot of experience and a farm director without a lot of experience starting at the same time, but we had the same idea of how to go about building an organization.
MJH: You’re on record that the Rangers had worked hard to position themselves to sign Michael Inoa and, in fact, thought you had a deal done with him. When he signed with Oakland, did that anticipated financial commitment leave the Rangers behind the eight-ball in terms of signing other Latin American prospects this winter?
JD: No. That’s a credit to ownership. Inoa was an exception to the budget that Tom allowed us to pursue as a rare but risky opportunity. We never got to the point that we thought we had a deal. [International scouting director] A.J. [Preller] and our international group spent a long time working on Michael and we put ourselves in a position where we thought we had a great chance to sign him, but ultimately Oakland got it done. We were prepared to make a significant investment, but anticipating that sort of financial commitment to him didn’t change anything else about what we did in Latin America this year.
MJH: Do you think that MLB will either fold Latin America / international amateurs into the June draft or create a separate draft in an attempt to address the abuses in that system that came to light this year?
JD: I think that’s where the industry is headed. As an organization, we don’t necessarily want that because we’ve developed what we believe is a competitive advantage in Latin America because of our people and the work we’ve put in down there. If we do go to a draft format, I’d prefer a separate draft rather than one world draft with the domestic kids rolled into it. Of course, that won’t solve all of the problems. We’ve got plenty of teeth-gnashing every summer over the June draft, so I’m not sure pushing the international market into a similar system really addresses the issues. The June draft has it’s own set of problems.
MJH: If a rival GM called you up today and offered you a promising young starting pitcher who has already gotten his feet wet in the big leagues for your top lefty prospect Derek Holland and a young power reliever like Warner Madrigal, would you be tempted to pounce on that offer and if so, why?
JD: No. I don’t think so. That’s not where we are right now. We’re pretty committed to our own guys and the way we are going about developing them.
MJH: Put differently and more directly, are you going to be more reluctant in the future to trade the prospects that YOUR system has drafted and developed for someone else’s prospects or young big leaguers in the future because of past deals like the Chris Young and John Danks trades?
JD: Yes. We’ve made some evaluations in the past that we’d approach differently now. I think that it’s less likely now that, on a close call, we’d make a judgment that someone else’s young pitcher is better developed or prepared than our own young pitcher. That’s not hard and fast — there are always exceptions and we’re open to improving any way we can. But I know what you’re getting at. It energizes the entire system to see a Matt Harrison or an Eric Hurley contributing for the Texas Rangers and there’s value in that. We’re working hard to get to a point where it means something special to be a pitcher who came up in the Texas Rangers system and contributed to winning baseball in Arlington.
MJH: What do you feel is the top developmental need area right now? RH power? Corner OF? JD: Pitching. Period. We got our farm system to where it is now by focusing on high-end pitching and we aren’t going to stop.
MJH: Have you started to work on an extension for Josh Hamilton and if so, do you believe a long-term deal can be done before spring training?
JD: Usually, those things occur between the first of the year and spring training. Josh is a guy we want here for a long time and we’ll address that at the right time.
MJH: Have you made a decision about whether or not you will attempt to sign Milton Bradley to a multi-year deal?
JD: We know what we want to do but haven’t had a chance to talk to his agent yet. I can’t say right now specifically what we’re hoping to get done. I’m hoping to talk with them later today.
MJH: If Bradley doesn’t return for one reason or another, do you feel like you’ll have to go outside the organization to obtain some right-handed power? Would Nelson Cruz be the top in-house candidate to bat behind Hamilton next year?
JD: Well, there aren’t a lot of options out there for right handed power at a reasonable price. It’s likely that we’ll stay inside the organization to fill that need.
MJH: Have you made a decision about whether or not you’ll exercise Hank Blalock’s option?
JD: I expect that we will, but we’ll make a formal decision on that shortly.
MJH: Is Davis at first, Metcalf at third and Hank at DH an option for opening day, 2009? Or Hank at first, Davis at third and someone else at DH more likely?
JD: We’ve whiteboarded both scenarios. We certainly want to upgrade our defense, so you can read into that what you want.
MJH: Have you contemplated how you’d deal with the very likely scenario that Justin Smoak is ready for the big leagues on opening day 2010? Isn’t it in the club’s best interest to see if Davis can hold down third base in 2009 so that you can pencil both into the lineup for years to come?
JD: Well, we are in the American League, so that gives us more flexibility on something like that. But that’s always part of the evaluation for what we do at the big league level: who’s coming? Where do we need to make long-term commitments? And there is some element of planning around a guy like that who you think could come very quickly. Sometimes you have to make evaluations, commit to a plan and go forward before everything has played out — that’s what we’re charged with.
MJH: Do you think that, more likely than not, you’ll end up trading at least one of your four catchers this winter?
JD: Depends on the market. It’s too early to say for sure, but I think that there is certainly a good possibility that something could develop there.
MJH: There was a report out of Boston the other day that the Red Sox have zeroed in on Texas as the likely source of their next franchise catcher. There was even a claim that they had attempted to acquire Teagarden at the deadline. Can you confirm that Boston made an offer for Teagarden in July and have you had any conversations with them in the past couple of weeks about trading one of your catchers?
JD: I won’t get into specifics. Yes, they have inquired about catching. I can’t say when or what sort of discussions were had.
MJH: Let’s assume that you get an offer you really like for Gerald Laird today and then another one you really like for Jarrod Saltalamacchia next week. Could you do both? If so, is the organization prepared to go forward with Taylor Teagarden and Max Ramirez as it’s catchers in 2009 and beyond or would that scenario leave you looking for a veteran to start or back up the position?
JD: That’s a really good question. Assuming the deals made sense for us, I wouldn’t be opposed to that [going forward with Teagarden and Ramirez] and we’ve thought about that scenario possibly developing. If it did, we’d explore the catcher market but it wouldn’t necessarily be the top priority.
MJH: Are you proactively looking to make a deal for a young established starter a year or two away from free agency such as someone like Greinke, Cain, Nolasco, etc.? And if so, do you think there is any way to make a deal for a guy like that without putting Feliz, Holland, Main or Perez in the return package?
JD: Yes. We’ve got some targets in that area but those guys don’t come available too often. Can we make a deal without including one of those guys? Don’t know. Depends on the club and who they’re interested in, but I have a hard time imagining that we would trade any of those guys.
MJH: Is there any specific need area for the big league club that you are targeting to address through a free agency this winter?
JD: Bullpen. I think that there are opportunities to improve the club there. Tampa did a good job of that this year, filling it from a variety of sources. We’re aware of the historical risks of multi-year deals in that area, but there are always a handful of good short term deals available in the bullpen.
MJH: Have you made 40-man roster decisions yet for guys like Poveda, Vallejo, Mayberry, Osuna & Schlact?
JD: Yes, but I can’t say what they are right now. I can talk about those guys if you want.
MJH: OK, I wanted to ask about Jose Vallejo. Last summer you told me that the organization felt that Jose could be an excellent shortstop. Are you contemplating a scenario where you split up Jose and Elvis so that Jose can get some time at short next year?
JD: Yes. There’s not much doubt that Jose has the physical ability to play shortstop and I think that there’s a good chance that he’ll see time at short in Frisco next year. MJH: And with Schlact, I was wondering if you have a feel for whether he’s hit his ceiling at Double-A or if you think he’s a Jeremy Guthrie or Doug Davis sort of guy who won’t really see it all click until he’s in his mid-to-late 20’s?
JD: I can’t put any kind of ceiling on him. Michael’s got good stuff. Our coaches love him. He’s got great makeup. He’s a student of the game. Loves being a ballplayer. We’re aware of the statistical indicators, but still think there’s every chance that he’s going to become a solid major leaguer at some point.
MJH: Let’s turn back to free agency for a moment before I get out of your hair. Tell me if you can, what is the organization’s basic philosophy about free agency right now and going forward?
JD: Open minded. We’re not going to ignore opportunities in free agency, but we are doing everything we can to put ourselves in a position where we don’t have to depend on free agency to fill a lot of important roles. There are two different free agent markets — the top end and then a secondary market where you can find a lot of excellent winning players. There’s no question that the core of our ballclub going forward is going to come from what we grow and if times come where the right guy in free agency can fill a gap for us, we’ll make use of that market.
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