DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - It's not often that we hear from Rangers owner Ray Davis. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I heard his voice. But after he shockingly dismissed president of baseball operations Jon Daniels on Wednesday, his presence at the podium was necessitated.
A few hours after the announcement came down that JD was out, Davis was front in center in the press conference room at Globe Life Field answering questions about what led to Daniels' sudden ouster, which came just two days after he listened to Daniels and general manager Chris Young's recommendation to fire manager Chris Woodward.
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Davis was forthright and admitted that the club simply has failed to meet his and the fans' expectations.
"The bottom line is we're not good, and we haven't been good for six years. And the bottom line is to be competitive going forward, I felt we needed to make a change," Davis said of his decision to move on from Daniels after a 17-year run as the leader of the club's front office.
Davis was asked about his plans to continue building out a roster that clearly isn't ready to contend next season as currently constructed. And to his credit, he indicated that he was prepared to spend more this offseason, but don't expect another spending spree quite like the one last winter when the club committed over half a billion dollars to Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jon Gray and Kole Calhoun.
"We obviously know what our needs are going into 2023. We need a couple of front-end starters and we need a middle-of-the-lineup bat," Davis said. "Beyond that, whatever they bring to me [Chris Young], if we can afford it, I don't plan on spending as much money as we did last offseason, but we plan on spending some money."
As for the fans, a large majority of whom (trust me, I saw a lot of the comments) were over the moon as word came down of Daniels' shocking dismissal. Davis had a message for them too.
"The fans have got to be as upset as I am. I'm not a good loser. All I can say to the fans is we're treating this with a sense of urgency. That's why we made a couple of moves this week, and we plan on putting a very competitive team on the field next year," Davis said when asked if this move was in response to the fans who were clamoring for a change in the front office. "We'll gain credibility with the fans with wins on the field. And that's what I hope these moves will do."
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