Rangers dismiss offensive coordinator Ecker

ARLINGTON -- Bruce Bochy has never made an in-season coaching change in his decades of managerial experience at the big league level between the Padres, Giants and Rangers.

That changed on Sunday night, when the Rangers announced that offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker was relieved of his duties. There has been no announcement regarding hitting coach Justin Viele or assistant hitting coach Seth Connor.

Despite having a 3.09 rotation ERA, the Rangers sit at a game below .500 after their 8-1 win over the Mariners on Sunday afternoon due to offensive struggles that have persisted over the first month of the season.

At the conclusion of Sunday’s game, Texas was 25th in wRC+ (85), 25th in slugging (.359), 26th in batting average (.228), 28th in on-base percentage (.285), 29th in runs (113) and 29th in walk rate (6.7%).

“After lengthy discussions and deliberations, we feel now is the appropriate time to provide our hitters with a new voice as we pursue goals of winning the division and reaching the postseason,” Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said in a press release. “We are extremely grateful to Donnie for all that he has accomplished here with the Rangers, including his role in the club’s 2023 World Series championship. We wish him the best.”

Ecker joined the Rangers in 2022 on former manager Chris Woodward’s staff. Bochy kept that entire staff into 2023 -- including Connor and former hitting coach Tim Hyers -- when Texas won its first World Series.

The offense was a big reason for that Fall Classic victory. The Rangers won the inaugural team AL Silver Slugger Award in 2023, when their 881 runs scored were the most in the AL, and the club slashed .263/.337/.442 with a 114 wRC+.

In 2024, the Rangers' repeat bid fell short, in part due to the offensive regression under Ecker and Hyers. Last season, Texas ranked t-13th in walk-rate (8.1%), 18th in runs (683), t-19th in xwOBA (.306), t-20th in on-base percentage (.305), t-21st in batting average (.238), t-21st in wRC+ (95) and 23rd in slugging (.380).

Despite the struggles last season, both Bochy and Young were confident in a bounce back effort with a healthy Rangers lineup.

But now, 35 games in 2025, it was getting to be a little too late.

“I think this lineup was designed, collectively, to get performance out of 13 to 15 significant contributors,” Young said on Friday. “We can't run from where we are. I'm not even sure last year we were at this level of underperformance collectively as a team. That merits some level of change. It's about performance. It's not about last year. This is about what is right for the Texas Rangers right now.

“My hope is that soon, all of our guys are at their best together. If that happens, then we're a great team. But the reality is that we're not right now, so we have to start trying to effect change in a way that we can get a winning team out on the field.”