Shockwaves in Texas: Rangers Dismiss Donnie Ecker Amid Mysterious Offensive Collapse and Rocky Season Start
It’s never a smooth ride when a team hits a rough patch early in the season—but the Texas Rangers have decided they won’t just sit on their hands and hope for the best. In a move that caught some by surprise yet felt inevitable to anyone watching the scoreboard, the Rangers parted ways with offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on Sunday. With the team teetering just below .500 at 17-18, the brass clearly felt a shake-up was necessary to spark their lineup back to life. Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, made it clear that while there’s gratitude for Ecker’s contributions—particularly his role during the team’s championship run last year—the time has come to inject fresh energy into the hitters’ box. That’s a telling admission when you consider the offense has sputtered badly, despite pitching numbers that other clubs would kill for.
Even as Texas edged away from a clean sweep at home against their AL West rivals, the Seattle Mariners, with an 8-1 victory Sunday, the recent stretch has been riddled with frustrating close calls and lopsided defeats alike. Sure, the pitching staff holds a commendable ERA and WHIP, but the bats have been largely silent, dragging down any momentum the mound might have built. Ranking near the bottom in batting average and runs produced, the Rangers are now staring up at the Mariners from four games behind, barely outpacing the struggling Angels. It’s no wonder the front office’s patience ran thin—the hope now is that swapping the voice guiding the hitters will breathe new life into this offense before the season slips through their fingers.
After a tough start to the season, the Texas Rangers are starting to make changes. The team announced Sunday it fired offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker after a sluggish start that has the Rangers 17-18 on the season.
“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,” Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, said in a statement. “We are extremely grateful to Donnie for all that he has accomplished here with the Rangers.”
The move came after Texas beat the Seattle Mariners 8-1 at home on Sunday, avoiding a sweep against its AL West rival. But the past few weeks have seen a smattering of disappointing results for the Rangers, who also lost to the Mariners 13-1 and 2-1 and had three one-run losses in a row last week.
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After short stints with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, Ecker joined Texas’ hitting staff in 2021, helping the team win the World Series in 2023.
The team said Ecker’s replacement and “the structure of the club’s hitting staff” will be addressed sometime this week.
Texas’ early-season problems have extended to its pitching efforts: The Rangers are tied for the sixth-best ERA in the league at 3.44 and have one of the lowest WHIPs at 1.17, as well. And yet the team has lost seven of its last 10.
The issues with the Rangers are all about offense: Their .228 collective batting average is the sixth-lowest in baseball. Texas also has also racked up the second-fewest runs and RBI, beating out only the Colorado Rockies.
At this point in the season, the Rangers are fourth in the AL West, four games back from the division-best Mariners and only sitting above the slightly hopeless Los Angeles Angels. Clearly Texas’ front office is seeing the same problem and is hoping a coaching change will reinvigorate the Rangers’ offense — before it’s too late.
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