All we'd heard recently was that new Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister and longtime Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux had had several "positive" discussions but had yet to come to any sort of agreement for Maddux returning to the Rangers as a free agent and one of the best pitching coaches in the business.
Now, it's official: Maddux is returning to serve under Banister, a guy who beat him out for the Rangers' managerial gig, much like new bench coach Steve Buechele, who was also passed over for the job.
Pitching coaches rarely make the move to manager, which Maddux seems set on doing at some point in his career, but few pitching coaches in the game are as good as Maddux, and now the Rangers and Banister are lucky to have him back.
Maddux has spent the entire time since the Rangers' season ended over a month ago in Arizona working with the Rangers' young pitchers and must be excited about what he has coming up, aside from the obvious positives of Yu Darvish, a healthy Derek Holland and a rehabbing Martin Perez.
You can bet all those three are happy to have Maddux back, and Banister should be joining them.
