The Rays organization seems to find a way to get the most out of their roster. I'll take a guy high up in their front office anytime!

TEXAS RANGERS ANNOUNCE ROSS FENSTERMAKER PROMOTED TO GENERAL MANAGER
Former MLB infielder Cole Figueroa hired as Assistant General Manager;
Justin Viele hired as Major League Hitting Coach

Arlington, Texas The Texas Rangers today announced that Ross Fenstermaker has been promoted to General Manager. He becomes the 10th individual in Rangers history to serve in the role of General Manager.

The club has also hired former Major League infielder Cole Figueroa as Assistant General Manager and Justin Viele (pronounced "VEE-lee") as Major League Hitting Coach.

The 38-year-old Fenstermaker has served the past three years as Vice President/Assistant General Manager for Player Development and International Operations. In his previous role, he had oversight of the player development/minor league operations departments and was also responsible for the Rangers' international amateur scouting efforts. He had additional involvement in other areas of baseball operations under Chris Young and department leaders.

He will be entering his 16th season overall with the Rangers, his eighth based in Arlington, as Fenstermaker has extensive experience in professional and international scouting. He was the Senior Director of Pro & International Scouting from 2020-21 and Director of Pro Scouting in 2018-19. He spent the 2017 season as International Crosschecker after serving as a professional scout from 2011-16. Ross began his tenure with the organization in 2010 as a baseball operations intern.

A native of Granite Bay, California, Ross was a left-handed pitcher at Granite Bay High School (graduated 2004) and the University of California-Davis (graduated 2008).

Figueroa, 37, joins the Rangers after eight seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays organization. He has served the past three years as the Rays' Director of Baseball Operations, where some of his responsibilities included baseball strategy, player/market evaluations, and long-term growth of baseball operations staff. While at the Rays, Figueroa also spent time as assistant of baseball development and assistant director of hitting development.

A former infielder, Figueroa spent three seasons in the Majors with the Rays (2014), Yankees (2015), and Pirates (2016) before beginning his career in baseball operations with the Rays in November 2016. A native of Tallahassee, Fla., he was selected by the Padres in the sixth round of the 2008 MLB Draft out of the University of Florida.

Viele (pronounced "VEE-lee"), who turns 34 on November 13, has spent the last five seasons (2020-24) as a hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants. While working with current Rangers coach Donnie Ecker in 2021, Viele helped lead the Giants offense to a franchise-record 241 home runs, the second-highest total in MLB that season (262-Toronto). Prior to joining the Giants, Viele spent three years as a hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in 2019 (Low-A Great Lakes), 2018 (High-A Rancho Cucamonga), and 2017 (Rookie-level Ogden). He also served as the hitting coach of the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League following the 2018 season. In 2015, Viele joined the coaching staff at his alma mater, Santa Clara University, as an assistant coach a position he held for two seasons.

A native of Fullerton, Calif., Viele played two professional seasons in the Baltimore organization following his selection by the Orioles in the 37th round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Santa Clara University. He combined to bat .211 in 126 pro games, reaching Low-A Delmarva of the South Atlantic League in 2014. Prior to that, Viele hit .242 over 154 games spanning three collegiate seasons for the Broncos.

Very good. I think everyone saw this coming, but glad they didn't waste much time. Lets get to business now.

Eovaldi opted out as expected.

Hard to say, not knowing what the TV deal is going to be and what the payroll allowance will be. Personally I'd rather see them go all-in on Corbin Burnes, but that's extremely unlikely. My concern about paying too much for Eovaldi is it'll remove the team's ability to address other needs...closer being the main one IMO.

For me, 3 years is a stretch. I'd see if he'd take 2/50M and expect him to say no. The word has pretty consistently been that the team isn't going over the CBT, so when you combine that with the TV uncertainty, it's just really hard to make much of an educated guess.

So much for me having good opinions lol

Yep Bart was also drafted very high a few years before Henry Davis, Bart seems to be figuring it out now.