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Chris Young hired as Rangers g.m.

The Rangers have announced former pitcher and MLB executive Chris Young has been hired as the team’s general manager

By Adam J. Morris
David Brewster/Star Tribune Sunday_05/15/05_Mpls - - - - - -Texas Ranger pitcher Chris Young in the 3rd inning.
Look who’s back
Photo by DAVID BREWSTER/Star Tribune via Getty Images

The Texas Rangers have hired Chris Young as Executive Vice President and general manager, the team announced today. Jon Daniels remains in place as the president of baseball operations.

This news is rather stunning, and seemingly comes out of nowhere. The 41 year old Young is a Dallas native who was named the Vice President of On-Field Operations, Initiatives and Strategy for MLB since May, 2018. In February, 2020, Young was promoted to Senior Vice President.

Young had been discussed as a potential general manager candidate for the New York Mets, but reportedly took himself out of consideration because he has young children (ages 8, 10 and 12) who live in the Metroplex, and he did not want to uproot the family to move to New York. That news came out just a few days ago, and one has to assume that there were discussions between Young and the Rangers at the time, so the “family considerations,” while real, may also have been a bit of a smokescreen. Obviously, working for the Rangers, Young will be able to keep his family in the Metroplex.

Young is extremely well-regarded in the game, someone seen as a great baseball mind who has been viewed as a natural fit in a front office role. His joining the Rangers should be seen by Rangers fans as a very good thing.

Daniels has been the Rangers’ general manager since October, 2005, and has been the president of baseball operations as well since March, 2013. Young will be reporting to Daniels, with the Rangers now adopting the structure that many teams have, with the general manager and president of baseball ops being separate jobs, with the g.m. reporting to the president.

One of Daniels’ early moves as general manager was to trade starting pitcher Chris Young, along with Adrian Gonzalez and Terrmel Sledge, to the San Diego Padres for Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka and Billy Killian. It was a move widely panned at the time (except by Randy Galloway, who said he approved of the move because anytime you can give up one pitcher and get two in return that’s a good thing), and has gone down as one of the worst trades Daniels has made.

Fifteen years later, Daniels has brought Chris Young back home.