Rangers announce Moore, Anderson will not return

The Rangers have announced that bench coach Jackie Moore and first base coach Dave Anderson will not be retained as part of the 2014 coaching staff.  All other coaches, per John Blake, are expected to return.

The news that Moore will not be back is not surprising, as there had been rumors for a while that he was likely to be replaced.  Evan Grant writes that Jon Daniels wanted to replace Moore last offseason, and that "became a flashpoint for the front office tension between Daniels and CEO Nolan Ryan."

Moore has made it clear why he thinks he was let go:

Rangers bench coach Jackie Moore on his firing: "You look for reasons and I haven't found any, other than me being a Nolan guy."

— Todd Wills (@wtwills09) October 2, 2013

Moore was hand-picked by Nolan Ryan to replace bench coach Art Howe after Howe was fired in August, 2008.  It has long been suggested that the front office -- specifically, the "Daniels camp," if you will -- wanted someone with a different voice to be the primary strategic advisor to Ron Washington during games, given that in-game strategy is pretty widely considered to be Wash's biggest weakness.

That being said, if there was any question that Jon Daniels was running the show now, the fact that he's fired one of Nolan's long-time people should put those questions to rest.

Steve Buechele, who managed AA Frisco last year, is being suggested as someone who could possibly join the coaching staff, either as first base coach or as bench coach.

First year hitting coach Dave Magadan, who some fans felt deserved blame for the offensive struggles in 2013, is apparently safe.