There's plenty of blame to go around for the Texas Rangers' struggles in 2014, and the culprit in many Rangers' fans eyes has been general manager Jon Daniels.
As is the norm, the front office and manager usually take the hit in situations like this, and 2014 for the Rangers was no different, except the manager skipped town in early September and didn't have to deal with this season-ending blame game.
Daniels is taking a lot of the blame for the team's woes this year, specifically involving the Rangers' historic injury-laden season, probably much more than he should be.
The one that sticks out that could fall on Daniels is the Ian Kinsler-Prince Fielder trade. That obviously blew up in Daniels' face with Jurickson Profar not playing a single game this year and Fielder just topping 40 games and underperforming before needing season-ending cervical fusion surgery.
But the league-record injury total couldn't have been averted, and neither could the fallout from it. Daniels took blame for not having the team prepared from a roster perspective to sustain itself after the mass amount of injuries, but no general manager in baseball could've prepared a roster to deal with the loss of every Opening Day starter except two and every starting pitcher. That's unheard of, and the chances of it happening again are slim and none.
Give Daniels a pass on this season. Next season, however, he'll be on the hot seat if anything close to the 2014 results are repeated.
