Jaramillo to return with entire Rangers staff

[Max Power]

05:15 PM CST on Monday, November 22, 2004
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News

Nearly two months of nail-biting among the Rangers young hitters ended Monday. They won't have to break in a new hitting coach.

Rangers owner Tom Hicks said the entire coaching staff will return for 2005.

The biggest questions had been about well-respected hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, who interviewed for the New York Mets managerial job. Jaramillo agreed to a three-year contract that is expected to make him among the highest paid coaches in the game. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan had been the highest paid coach at $500,000 per season.

"We have a top-flite GM [John Hart] and a top-flight staff," Hicks said. "More than any time since I've been involved with this baseball club, we've got real stability, a real team-first feel."

Hicks also said pitching coach Orel Hershiser, who guided a patched-together staff to the lowest ERA in the 11 seasons since the Rangers moved into Ameriquest Field, would be with the club for the long-term. While Hershiser only agreed to a one-year deal as pitching coach, Hicks said he expected Hershiser to be "one of the building blocks of this organization."

Rangers hitters had been quite vocal in their support of Jaramillo after it became public that he and the club had broken off talks on a contract extension in mid-season. Cornerstone players such as Mark Teixeira, Michael Young and Hank Blalock all expressed concern over the possibility Jaramillo would not return.

"I'm glad to be back," Jaramillo said. "The managing opportunity was one thing, but I'm glad to get a chance to come back and work more with these kids. We've bonded. We're going to keep hitting and we're going to have fun doing it."

During Jaramillo's 10 seasons, the Rangers have produced four American League MVPs (Juan Gonzalez twice, Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez) and 14 Silver Slugger winners. No team has had more MVPs in that span. Only Seattle (15) has had more Silver Slugger winners.

[dalmations202]

This is good news for Rangers fans.

Rudy is one of the better hitting coaches in the league.