Texas Rangers Add ‘Savant’ Willman To Baseball Operations

“We are excited to welcome Daren Willman and his family to the Texas Rangers,” team president Jon Daniels said. “He’s been recognized an industry leader in data analytics since the creation of “Baseball Savant.”

The Texas Rangers on Friday announced the addition of a baseball “savant” to their front office in the person of Daren Willman, the organization giving him the title of “Senior Director, Research & Development/Applications for Baseball Operations.”

“We are excited to welcome Daren and his family to the Texas Rangers,” team president Jon Daniels said. “He’s been recognized an industry leader in data analytics since the creation of “Baseball Savant.”

Being able to work with amazing people like @tangotiger @mike_petriello @JasonBernard_ & the whole #Statcast crew every day for 5+ years was an absolute joy but in the back of my mind I always wanted to work for a team if the right opportunity came up and it finally did.

— Daren Willman (@darenw) May 7, 2021

Willman, who has been with Major League Baseball since January 2016 and is MLB’s director of Research and Development for the sport’s Operations Department, is responsible for the creation of a number of baseball analytics websites and systems. including “Baseball Savant” and MLB.com’s Prospects Stats Section.

He will be responsible for the development and expansion of the Rangers’ baseball information systems and will oversee a staff of developers in the continued growth and improvement of the organization’s information infrastructure.

Said Daniels: “His unique baseball background combined with his innovative development skill set will enhance our internal systems and decision making, and have a significant impact on our organization.”

Willman developed MLB’s real-time Statcast Gamefeed that includes stats, visualizations and box scores for every Major League game. Willman also created the “Savant Illustrator” tool to help fans easily create visualizations for story telling centered on players and teams.

Prior to his work with Major League Baseball, Willman was the software architect for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Houston for almost 10 years. A graduate of Texas Lutheran University, where he was a member of the varsity baseball team, Willman is scheduled to begin his new role with the Texas Rangers later this month.

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