Woodward Fallout: Beasley's 'Bittersweet Opportunity'

The Rangers third-base coach will manage the rest of the season and hates that this opportunity came at the expense of his friend.

Tony Beasley will finally get to be a Major League manager — but it comes at a cost.

For Beasley to become a manager, the Texas Rangers had to let Chris Woodward go. Beasley said that hurts, to know that someone he was close to had to go in order for him to get his chance.

Beasley summed it up perfectly in his first meeting with the media after the Rangers announced they fired Woodward.

“It's a bittersweet opportunity for me, but it comes at the cost of someone that was near and dear to my heart as well,” Beasley said.

There is perhaps no coach in the Rangers clubhouse that is more respected than Beasley, who celebrated his fourth year of being cancer-free in May. That anniversary coincided with Martín Pérez’s complete-game shutout against Houston on May 20. Pérez dedicated the game to Beasley and gave him the game ball.

Beasley will be the interim manager for the Rangers the rest of this season. Woodward, hired before the 2018 season, was 211-287 as manager. His best season was his first, in 2019, when he led the Rangers to a 78-84 record. Texas is 51-63 going into Monday’s series opener with Oakland at Globe Life Field.

Beasley was a minor-league lifer as a player who never broke into the Majors. He also cultivated managerial experience in the minor leagues, managing at every level.

He led the Williamsport Crosscutters to a 46-26 record in the 2001 New York–Penn League. He also managed the Hickory Crawdads, the Rangers current High-Class A affiliate, where he piloted the Crawdads for 2002-03 and led them to a South Atlantic League title in 2002. He was Baseball America’s Low Class-A Manager of the Year both seasons.

Beasley then spent five years in the Pirates system as a manager, going 372-258 with Altoona in the Eastern League and was Baseball America’s Double-A Manager of the Year in 2004. With the Washington Nationals, he led the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs for two seasons.

He knows his job right now is to lead the Rangers the rest of this season. But, as Beasley spoke on Monday, it was clear he knows this is a potential audition for the job he’s always wanted.

“Everyone that manages in the minor leagues and comes up through a system, we aspire to get an opportunity to manage at the Major League level at some point,” Beasley said. “Obviously, that's something that I have desire to do in my life. It's not something that I've thought was a must or absolute to complete me or validate me. But it's an opportunity that's presented itself and I'm grateful for it.”

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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