The Texas Rangers hired Mike Maddux as their new pitching coach Wednesday, and added former Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore as a senior adviser in their baseball operations department.
Maddux is returning to Texas to be on new manager Bruce Bochy’s staff. Maddux was first the pitching coach for the Rangers from 2009 to ’15, a span in which they made their only two World Series appearances. He spent the past five seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, and has been part of 11 playoffs teams over his past 15 seasons as a pitching coach.
Moore spent the past 16 years with the Royals, where he was named GM in May 2006 and also served as president of baseball operations before getting fired in September. The Royals had three consecutive 100-loss seasons before Moore’s arrival. They won back-to-back American League pennants in 2014 and 2015, beating the New York Mets for the World Series title after the second one.
Moore will collaborate with Rangers general manager Chris Young, the former pitcher who finished his big league playing career with the Royals from 2015 to ’17.
“There is no one more respected in our game. He rebuilt the Royals into a world champion,” Young said. “Dayton’s experiences as a longtime general manager, as well as his extensive background in scouting, will be a tremendous asset to me and the other leaders of our baseball group.”
Before joining the Royals, Moore spent 13 seasons with the Atlanta Braves in scouting and player development roles before becoming their director of player personnel in 2002.
Maddux was the second-longest-tenured pitching coach in club history when he left the Rangers after the 2015 season and spent the following two years with Washington. Texas had four consecutive seasons with team ERAs under 4.00 from 2010 to ’13. Before his arrival, they hadn’t had a team ERA under 4.00 since 1990, and haven’t had one since Maddux left.
After 15 seasons pitching in the big leagues, Maddux began his MLB coaching career with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2003 to ’08.
Even before three-time World Series champion manager Bochy was hired last month, the Rangers had said co-pitching coaches Doug Mathis and Brendan Sagara wouldn’t return to their major league staff.