Rangers name Hyers hitting coach, reunite him with Woodward
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Texas Rangers named Tim Hyers as their hitting coach Wednesday after he spent the past four seasons in the same role for the Boston Red Sox.
Hyers and Rangers manager Chris Woodward worked together as assistants on manager Dave Roberts’ staff with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016 and 2017.
The Dodgers were National League champions in 2017, and again in 2018, when Hyers was in his first season with the Red Sox when they beat Los Angeles for their World Series title.
The Rangers are coming off a 102-loss season and ranked 29th in the majors with a .232 team batting average. They were last with a .670 OPS and scored an AL-low 625 runs.
Over Hyers’ four seasons with the Red Sox, they led the majors in run scored (2,898), total bases (8,632), extra-base hits (1,989), batting average (.266), slugging percentage (.455) and OPS (.790).
Texas hired Donnie Ecker on Nov. 1 as its bench coach and also offensive coordinator, a role in which he will oversee the organization’s overall hitting program at both the major and minor league levels. Ecker had spent the past two seasons as a hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants.
Ecker replaced bench coach Don Wakamatsu, who was not retained after the season. The Rangers also didn’t bring back hitting instructors Luis Ortiz and Callix Crabbe.
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