Michael Young and Jon Daniels had their fair share of dust-ups during their time together with the Texas Rangers, which came to an end after the 2012 season when Daniels traded Young to Philadelphia after what amounted to a second demand in as many seasons to deal the veteran.
Young wasn't happy with the way he was treated with his position changes and playing time in a consistent role. That, coupled with Young's dip in production and increasing age, made it a pretty easy decision for Daniels to ship away Young despite his standing in the organization.
You see, Young is the team's all-time leader in several categories — offensive and longevity related — and was basically known as the face of the Rangers franchise after playing 13 seasons with the Rangers, during which time he won a batting title and helped lead the Rangers to consecutive AL pennants in 2010 and 2011.
According to several reports, it's basically a done deal that Young will be joining Daniels in the Rangers' front office after the two have seemingly fixed their differences since Young retired as a Ranger prior to spring training this year and was honored at a Rangers game this summer with a ceremony. The only question is what role Young will serve a special assistant to the GM.
According to those same reports, Young was present earlier this week during meetings discussing the pending managerial hire, and he could also serve as a voice of the player given his young age relative to the rest of the front office (he's almost 38) and his recent playing career, which includes playing with several of the current Rangers like Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz, Yu Darvish and more.
Young, of course, withdrew his name from the Rangers' managerial search talk last week, even if he was not a serious candidate, but he did talk with Daniels about it before the two talked and settled on this front office role.
It's going to be nothing but good to have a guy like Young, who is so respected by players in the room, around.
