After Ron Washington, the Rangers' all-time leader in managerial wins and the man who took the Rangers to two straight World Series in 2010 and 2011, abruptly resigned his position on Sept. 5 of last year, the Rangers handed over the reins to bench coach Tim Bogar, who was already seen as a possible managerial candidate at some point in the near future.
Bogar would go on to lead an awful Rangers team to a 14-8 record to close the season, and the games came against teams fighting for their playoff lives — not teams laying down — so it was pretty impressive for the longtime bench coach.
Bogar seemed like the natural replacement for Washington in the offseason as the Rangers' next manager, but then on Oct. 16, Jon Daniels & Co. threw a curveball by hiring longtime Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister.
"Who?" we all said. Exactly.
Now, we all know who Banister is, and unless you're just a hatin' curmudgeon, you pretty much love mostly everything about him.
True, Banister made some rookie mistakes in 2015, but what rookie manager doesn't? He also led a team that no one saw winning more than 80 games — a high-end guess — to the AL West title and a 2-0 lead over the best team in baseball in the ALDS before things came tumbling down.
Banister deserves serious consideration for AL Manager of the Year, an award that will be given out in the next couple of weeks, and even if he doesn't get it, it's not for a lack of a resume he's built, specifically over the last two months.
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As perplexed as some of were on this day a year ago, it's now pretty clear that the Rangers got their man.
